Congratulations Dad, It's a Teenager? by josette grover

Story Notes:

Takes place between the first and second epilogues of Seven Men against the darkness.

Author's Chapter Notes:

*** denotes flashback or different character viewpoint. / / denotes telepathic conversation

Xander looks up from the book he’d been reading most of the flight from LA to New York when the ‘fasten seat belt’ light comes on. He reaches down to tighten the belt strapped across his waist as he looks out the window. Fifteen minutes later he can see the New York Skyline come into view.

The plane touches down ten minutes later and he waits for the aisles to empty before standing up and opening the overhead bin. Grabbing his cane and briefcase, he hobbles down the aisle and out to the gate. Looking around, he heads first for the nearest bathroom and then for the man holding up a sign with his name on it.

“I’m Alexander Harris.”

“Yes sir, my name is James Stewart, and I’m from the Law office of Stewart, Higgins, and Houston. I’m to take you to your hotel, give you a schedule for the trust meeting, and ask you if you needed anything before the meeting? We’ve set you up in a suite at the hotel with a kitchenette, so we can stop and get some groceries if you want, or if you’re tired from the flight you can make a list and I’ll pick them up later tonight.”

“Then we’ll stop on the way to the hotel if you don’t mind.” Xander says, following him to the luggage carousel as the bags from his flight begin to arrive. Xander grabs his three bags as they appear, loading them onto the cart James had grabbed from the cart corral and follows him outside.

“Sir, if you’ll wait here, I’ll go get the car and bring it up.”

“I’ll be right here.” Xander smiles before leaning against the cart to take the weight off his bad leg and pulling the guidebook from the briefcase.

“Mr. Harris, do you want me to arrange for a tour guide?” James asks, looking at the well-thumbed book.

“No need, I have some friends here in New York. Once they know I’m in town, they’ll be tripping over themselves to show me everything. In fact, I’m going to have an argument about staying at the hotel, they’ll be insisting I stay with them instead.”

“If you’re certain, Mr. Harris?”

“Oh yeah, I’m very certain.” Xander grins, imagining the look on Ray and Peter’s face when they find out he’s staying at a hotel. “And you don’t have to keep calling me Mr. Harris, my name’s Xander.”

“Yes, s . . Xander.” James grins as he heads for his car. He hadn’t been quite sure what to expect when the bosses had sent him to pick up the heir to their largest account, but the young man currently wearing a pair of shorts with all sorts of pockets and a Hawaiian shirt wasn’t it.

A half-hour later they pull up in front of a medium-sized hotel and the doorman comes up with a cart for Xander’s bags. A porter takes the loaded cart into the hotel and stops at the reception desk.

“This is Mr. Alexander Harris, you’ve been expecting him.” James says to the woman behind the counter who smiles and nods as a manager walks up.

“Mr. Harris, I’m Douglass James Elliott, the day manager for the hotel. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to call me.” He says, leading the way to the elevator. “Our rooms are divided into three categories, regular rooms, business suites, and deluxe suites. We’ve put you up in one of our deluxe suites on the top floor. You have an excellent view from your balcony. The hotel offers free breakfasts in your room, The New York Times, and USA Today.” He leads the way into the suite, showing Xander everything before leaving with the porter.

“Mr. Harris, will you be needing me for anything else?” James asks as Xander drops onto the overstuffed couch with a sigh.

“No, tell your bosses thank you for the ride from the airport. I’m going to go over the schedule, call my friends, and walk down to the restaurant for an early lunch.” Xander says as he looks at the clock, changes the time on his watch, and pulls his cellphone from the briefcase. Punching in a number, he smiles as James closes the door behind him. Getting up to check the door is locked, he grins as the phone begins to ring on the other end.

“Good morning, Ghostbusters, we’re here to help you.” Janine says into the phone, her voice all business as she grabs a checklist Peter had worked up to get as much information from the customers as quickly as possible.

“Hey Janine, it’s Xander, are the guys there?” the cheerful voice on the other end of the line causes her to grin.

“Hey Xander, no they’re out on a run.” Janine says, “Can I take a message for Peter?”

“Can you keep a secret from the guys?”

“Depends on what the secret is,” Janine says calmly.

“I’m in New York, I had planned on surprising the guys by showing up at Headquarters.”

“Oh yeah, I can keep that secret.” Janine grins, “When do you plan on coming in?”

“Maybe tomorrow afternoon?” Xander says, looking over the schedule James had left him. “I’m in town on business, and the meetings don’t start until Friday.”

“Yeah, tomorrow should be good. They don’t have any busts scheduled, so everybody should be here.”

“Cool, I’ll be there tomorrow around one then. I’ll call around ten-thirty to see if everything’s okay.”

Xander grins as he turns off the cell phone, tossing it onto the couch before walking to his bags and beginning to unpack. His clothes fill one drawer and he takes the time to change into a pair of khaki slacks before heading towards the door. Late breakfast, early lunch, it doesn’t matter, he’s hungry and his stomach is three hours behind the clock.

Xander slips the cell phone in his pocket after checking he’s got his wallet and key before leaving the suite and heading towards the elevator. Once on the ground floor, he grabs a USA Today from the desk and walks to the restaurant. A waitress immediately hands him a menu and he spends a minute reading the specials before ordering and opening the paper.

An hour later Xander heads back up to his room to find a piece of paper slid under the door. Looking it over as he unlocks the door, he grins as he realizes that the free breakfast isn’t the continental breakfast he’d been expecting, but rather everything on the breakfast menu is free, delivered right to your room when you request it. Taking the second to fill out the form and fax it to the front desk, he settles on the couch with a guidebook and begins to make a list of attractions in New York he’d like to visit while in town. Of course, number one on the list is Ghostbusters Headquarters.

Tossing the book on the bed, he grabs the smallest duffel bag he’d brought with him before reaching for the telephone book and writing down an address before heading back downstairs, deciding to take the stairs this time to get some exercise.

Heading out a side door by the gym and pool, Xander takes the time to get his bearings and walks towards the subway entrance he’d seen on the way to the hotel. Checking a map once he’s underground, he vainly tries to figure out the rates before shrugging and buying a monthly pass.

An hour later he emerges back into the sunlight and looks around before spotting the store he’d been heading to.

The bell over the door rings and the clerk behind the counter of the occult shop looks up momentarily. The kid entering the shop doesn’t start looking around for the normal stuff and she discreetly pushes a button mounted under the counter as he heads for the real magical artifacts.

“Mr. Hawkins?” Xander asks, turning around when an older man enters the storefront. “Rupert Giles sent me.”

“Ahh, you’re Alexander Harris then,” he says, holding the curtain that separates the front of the store from the back open and motioning for Xander to enter first. “Young Giles told me about you, and that you might be taking the time to visit his old teacher while you were in New York.”

Xavier Hawkins looks over the young man as he motions him to a seat at the table. The retired Watcher once again remembers the conversation he’d had with his former protégé in the Watcher’s Council as he prepares tea for them.

* * *
“Hawkins, It’s Rupert Giles, I’m in a bit of a quandary and I was hoping you could help me out.” A voice from the past says, startling Xavier out of a mid-afternoon nap while he was supposed to be doing inventory.

“Rupert? It’s been years; whatever is the problem? Last I heard you had been transferred to Sunnydale as Watcher for the Slayer assigned to the Hellmouth.”

“Yes, my Slayer died a year ago stopping an Ascension attempt by the town’s Mayor. But that’s beside the point, when I moved back to England I took one of the Slayer’s friends with me. Young Xander is nineteen now and we just found out that he’s got some magical gifts that were masked growing up on the Hellmouth. Young Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and I are teaching him everything we know, but we’re looking for practitioners in other faiths who are willing to talk to him, give him a few pointers on how they do things, and are willing to sell him beginner materials.”

“What type of magic does he have?” Xavier asks, pulling over a notepad so he can make a list of books and websites the young boy can look at later. Giles quiet answer of ‘he’s a natural mage and has already done two major spell castings without any training’ causes him to drop the phone in complete shock.

“Are you certain?”

“Positive, both Wesley and myself were present both times. I can’t tell you what happened the first time, but the energy surge left him with pure white hair. The second time he blocked Ethan from the Chaos energy and tied his own magic into a self-regenerating shield that will keep the energy from attaching to him again while he heals.”

“Did he suffer any ill-effects from the two spell castings?”

“Aside from his hair turning white the first time, no.” Giles says, looking across the Hyperion lobby to see Xander, Cordelia, and Oz clustered around Cordy’s computer. Both boys are standing behind her desk-chair, reading over her shoulders and pointing out things on the computer screen. “And the second time Wesley tells me Xander was actually absorbing the Chaos energy left over from the spell and using it to replenish his own magical reserves.”

“I would dearly love the chance to meet this young man.” Xavier says.

“I was hoping you would say that,” Giles grins, looking ten years younger, “because Xander is going to be flying in to New York in a couple of weeks to attend a trustee meeting of his mother’s estate and to visit his older half-brother. I can ask him to look him up when he’s in town.”

“Thank you, Giles, that would be very nice of you. Do you know anything of his family, it might be interesting to check his family background and see if there’s any other practitioners in his background.”

“We just found out that he was adopted. His biological mother died of cancer when he was two, but his father is still alive. He was adopted by his mother’s half-sister and her husband who were members of the Legacy.”

“Why didn’t his parents take him to the Legacy then, they must have been aware of his gifts.”

“Because they were drunken, abusive thieves.” Giles says, looking around and lowering his voice after making sure Xander wasn’t in hearing distance. “I knew magic ‘went weird’ around him, but I didn’t know he had any gifts until earlier this year.”

“Okay, let me look around and see if we can dig anything up on his family. What are the names of his mother, father, and half-brother? And is the older brother from her side of the family or his?”

“His father is Charlie Venkman, his older brother is Peter Venkman, one of the Ghostbusters,” Giles grins at the groan his old mentor lets out at that bit of news, “And his mother was one Anna Harrington.”

“Anna Harrington?” Xavier says, dropping the phone for the second time that afternoon. “Did you say his mother is Anna Harrington?” he asks in a hushed voice.

“I did,” Giles says, his eyebrow climbing into his hairline, “Does that mean anything?”

“Anna Harrington is, or rather was, one of the most powerful white witches in history.” Xavier says, getting up and beginning to pace, “I’m surprised you’ve never heard of her. Do you have a fax machine? I’ll send you everything I have about her.”

“Thank you, Xavier.” Giles reads the fax number off the machine, nodding as Xavier reads it back to him.

“You’re welcome, Giles, I’ll talk to you later.” Xavier hangs up the phone and runs his hands through his hair, leaving it sticking straight up. Turning his attention back to his vast collection of books, he soon has a pile of information to copy and send Giles.

Giles looks up as the fax machine begins to spit out papers. Cordelia looks over as Giles rushes across the room to the fax machine, grabbing the first sheet as it comes out of the machine.

“Giles?” she asks, wondering if the plans the three teenagers had made for the day were going to be abruptly cancelled. Xander and Oz turn from the doorway to look back at the former watcher and he grins at them, waving them off.

“Just some information my old mentor said he’d send me. You three go off and enjoy yourselves.”

Cordelia grins as she pulls her purse from the desk and follows the boys outside. Wesley comes out from the kitchen, pulling his sleeves back down and drying his hands on a kitchen towel tucked in his belt.

“What is it, Giles?”

“Did you ever meet Xavier Hawkins while you were at the Academy?”

“Yes, he retired the year before I graduated.”

“He moved to New York, owns and operates a small magic shop now.” Giles says, looking over his glasses, “much like the one you took Xander to a couple weeks ago. Anyway, I called him to see if he had any texts that Xander could use, and he says that Xander’s mother was one of the most powerful white witches in history. He’s sending us everything he has about her.”

“Well, that would explain why she had all those magical texts in her library.” Wesley says, blinking as Giles reads the first few pages from the fax machine then hands them over, “I’ll call Rebecca tomorrow and ask if she knows anything about her.”

“Thank you Wesley,” Giles says, opening the cabinet where Cordelia keeps the extra paper and refills the fax machine paper tray. The blinking light goes out and the machine begins spitting paper out again. Soon, the two men have identical stacks of paper sitting in front of them at their desk, Wesley, and a table, Giles, as they begin to read.

* * *
Xander smiles as he looks around the back room of Xavier’s store, being around so many books reminds him of sitting at the library after school doing homework with Willow and Oz while Buffy trained in the back room.

“This brings back memories,” he says, lifting the mug of tea to his lips and beginning to drink as Xavier bustles around the room, bringing books back to the table. “I almost expect Wills and Buffy to come barreling through the door, bitching about homework, a teacher, or having to buy a new dress for a school dance while Giles and Wesley grabbed books from the stacks for our latest research session.

“Buffy and Wills?” Xavier asks, looking through his glasses at Xander who grins.

“Do they teach you that move at the Watcher’s academy? Giles and Wesley do the same thing. Buffy Summers was the Slayer, she and my best friend Willow died last year during our Demon Mayor’s Ascension attempt.”

Xavier nods and turns his attention back to his books, leaving Xander to grin behind his mug of tea. /Oh yeah, you trained Giles all right. He gets that same look when we’d explain something, the ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about but asking you to explain would be a complete waste of time’ Willow called it. He used to get that same look when Wills tried to explain how she found something on the computer for him. He’d just nod and let her babble./

Xander blinks as a voice in the corner says, ‘you have mail’ and he turns around to see Xavier bend over a state of the art computer system.

“Damn, well there goes that idea.” Xander mutters, watching Xavier’s fingers flying over the computer, “not all watchers are techno-phobes.”

Xavier grins, overhearing Xander’s muttered comment, “Yes, the Watcher Council does seem to be hide bound idiots who don’t know the first thing about computers and wouldn’t use them because ‘that’s simply not how it’s done’ don’t they?”

“You should have seen the look on Giles face the first time Willow got on the computer and ran a search for something. He’d been rummaging through his books for a couple of hours and she has the information needed in less than ten minutes.”

“Xander, what do you know about your mother?”

“Not much, she died when I was about two years old. I can dimly remember somebody bending over me, picking me up and holding me when I cried. At first, I thought it was wishful thinking, but now that I know I was adopted, I’m wondering if they weren’t memories that had been buried for years. My first memory that I’m really aware of is my Aunt screaming at me in a drunken haze for something or other.”

“Your mother was one of the most powerful white witches in the last hundred years or so.” Xavier says, opening one book to a picture and pushing it towards Xander. Xander smiles as he sees the same woman in the picture from the envelope, a few years younger if he can judge her age from the picture, dressed in a robe with the rest of her coven. According to the caption under the picture, they’re celebrating Samhain.

Xander smiles as he traces his mother’s face in the picture before pulling his wallet out of his jacket pocket and slides out a picture he hands across the table. Xavier takes it and sees the same woman holding a small baby with the same chocolate eyes as the young man sitting across from him.

“I haven’t had a chance to go through all my mom’s belongings yet, so as far as I know that’s the only picture I have of my mom.” Xander says sadly. “I found the original in the manila envelope the lawyer gave me after my aunt and uncle’s deaths, I wasn’t aware I was adopted before then. I went to a camera store and had some duplicates made, I keep this one in my wallet, and a small one sits on my nightstand so she’s the first thing I see when I get up and the last thing I see when I go to sleep.”

Xavier smiles as he hands the picture back. Xander carefully puts the picture away as Xavier begins to talk about each book he’s selling Xander.

An hour later Xander emerges from the back room, the duffel bag over his shoulder stuffed near to bursting with books and other supplies, and heads for a small café across the street for a bite to eat before taking the subway back to the hotel. Dropping the bag on the chair next to him with a sigh, he looks over the menu and orders a club sandwich and bowl of soup.

Three hours later Xander drops the bag on the couch with a sigh as he enters his hotel suite. Seeing a blinking light on the phone, he checks his messages and sees that Giles had called.

* * *

Giles looks up from the book he’s scanning into the database for Oz when the phone across the room rings. Cordelia picks it up and grinning, puts it on speakerphone while waving the others to stop what they’re doing.

“About time you called back, Xander, you’ve been in New York all damn day.”

“Sorry Cordy,” Xander says, and Giles smiles as he imagines Xander grinning at the phone, “I just got back from visiting Giles’ friend and found the message.”

“Oh good, I was wondering if you had had the chance to visit him yet,” Giles says, closing the book with a sigh as he looks at the small pile of books already scanned and the huge piles of books yet to be scanned into the database and sorted. Oz looks over the monitor at him and grins.

“Yup, and I have a huge bag of books and supplies for my studies.” Xander says, pulling off his brace as he hits the button to turn the speakerphone on as he walks towards the bed.

“Xander, what are you doing?” Cordy asks, as the sound of opening and shutting drawers can be heard amidst mutters of ‘where the hell did I put that damn speedo Cordy made me buy? I sure as hell aren’t going commando, not at this hotel.’

“The hotel has a fully stocked gym, I’m going to go down and soak in the Jacuzzi for a couple hours, my leg is starting to bother me since I couldn’t find a seat on the subway and had to stand coming and going.”

“Xander, tell me you’re not taking your clothes off while we’re on the phone.” Cordy shrieks as the unmistakable sound of a zipper going down can be heard. “I don’t need to know you’re naked, damn it.”

“Why?” Xander says, and Giles smirks with Ethan as they hear the unmistakable grin in Xander’s voice, “It didn’t bother you when we were dating.”

“Xander,” Cordelia shrieks as everybody but her starts laughing helplessly. She shoots dagger glares at the others.

“Gotcha Cordy, I was opening the bag of books from the store.” Xander grins at the phone, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at his ex-girlfriend, knowing she can’t see him and retaliate.

“Jerk,” She says, “I’d forgotten your sick sense of humor.”

“Love you too, Cordy,” Xander says from New York before hanging up.

“Ohhh, you’re going to pay for that one, Xander.” She mutters, turning the speakerphone off as she turns her attention back to paperwork, “Oh how you are going to pay.”

“Think she’s going to kill him when he gets back?” Spike asks, leering at Angel.

“Nah, that would be over too quick,” Oz says from the computer he’s working at, “Cordy’s going to make him suffer for that one.”

* * *

“Love you too, Cordy.” Xander smiles as he hangs up the phone, smirking as he imagines the look on Cordy’s face. He’d better find her the perfect gift to make up for that phone call, or Cordy was going to make his life hell when he got back to the hotel.

“Maybe I can just fly back to London?” Xander mutters out loud as he changes into a t-shirt and pulls a pair of shorts over his suit and tosses a towel over his arm, “Nahh, knowing Cordy she’d fly to London and make my life miserable.” He grins as he grabs the room key from the table and heads down to the gym.

“Can I help you sir?” the gym attendant asks as the door opens and a young man enters the room.

“My leg is giving me fits, I’ve been on it too long.” the young man says, bending down to remove the heavy brace with a sigh. “I thought I’d soak it in the whirlpool a couple hours to relieve some tension.”

“We have a licensed physical and massage therapist on call sir, would you like me to call her in for a massage? Some gentle stretching might help with the pain.”

Xander looks up and thinks about it for a second.

“Yeah, that might help, thanks.”

Ten minutes later a young woman enters the gym, carrying a portable massage table to find her newest client soaking in the Jacuzzi. She sets up her table beside the Jacuzzi and watches as the young man pulls himself out of the water and winces as she sees the heavy lines of scar tissue covering his right leg from thigh to ankle.

“Sir,” she asks, helping him onto the table, “Can I ask what happened?”

“A wall collapsed on me, breaking my leg in three places,” Xander says through gritted teeth, “The doctors were able to save the leg, but I have a couple pins holding everything together and a limited range of motion. It’s not so bad most days, except for the limp, but if I’m extremely tired, or been sitting or standing in one place for a length of time, the damn thing stiffens up and begins to cramp.”

“Ouch,” she says sympathetically, “Did your physical therapist give you exercises to help you with the mobility problems?”

“Yes,” Xander says, folding his arms under his head as the therapist slowly begins to move the leg around, gauging range of motion before squirting lotion into hands from the bottle warming on the stand and beginning a deep massage of the knotted muscles. “I’ve gotten 80 percent of the motion back in the year since it happened, and the rest is slowly coming back.”

“Do you wear the brace all the time?” Theresa asks, seeing the heavy brace sitting next to a chair.

“Only when I know I’m going to be on my feet or sitting in one place for any length of time. I flew in this morning from LA, I knew my leg would be hurting by the time the flight arrived at JFK, then spent an hour on the Subway each way visiting a shop owned by a friend of my roommate’s, then spent three hours sitting and talking with him. By the time I got back to the hotel, my leg wasn’t just barking, he was baying at the moon.”

“Double Ouch,” she says, gently rubbing out a knot at her client’s indrawn breath. “Is it usually this bad?”

“Oh this is tame compared to a couple months ago. I flew London to Denver, and all I can say is thank god Virgin has seats that fold out so I could lay down, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to get out of my seat by the time the plane landed.”

An hour later Xander slumps onto the couch in his hotel room, sliding down to lay on the cushions. A long massage, followed by another soak in the whirlpool had washed away all the pain and he makes a note to look at the idea of getting a whirlpool spa at the Hyperion. Even if he’s not there, he’s sure the others would appreciate being able to soak out aches and pains after a case.

Looking at the clock, he heads for the kitchenette. Ten minutes later he’s got a small salad ready while he gets a steak ready to broil and bakes a potato in the microwave.
Pouring a glass of milk, he grabs the tv remote and listens to the local news while eating.

“Late breaking news, the area around Ghostbusters Central has been closed down by the police. They are not commenting on what’s happening at this time, we will be bringing you more developments as time allows.”

Xander immediately grabs the telephone, quickly punching in the numbers for their private line and worriedly paces as the phone rings.

“Ghostbusters,” A tired female voice, definitely not Janine’s answers.

“Who is this?” Xander asks, “What’s happening at the firehouse?”

“Who the hell are you and how did you get this number?”

“I’m Xander Harris and I got the number because Peter’s my big brother. Now who the hell are you and what’s going on?”

* * *

In the firehouse, Detective Elena Ramirez holds the phone at arms length and swears in Spanish before bringing it back up to her ear.

“Listen Mr. Harris, if that’s your real name, Peter Venkman don’t have a brother. Now I don’t know what paper you’re from, or how you managed to get this number but no comment.”

Suddenly the phone is grabbed from her hand and Janine begins to talk into it.

“Xander, everything’s okay. We’ve got some government bigwigs in town conferring with Egon and the surrounding area has been closed down for security reasons. Listen, Peter’s here, you want to talk to him?” Janine doesn’t even bother to listen to the reply on the other end as she tosses the phone to her boss.

“Xander,” she says as he grabs it out of midair. He immediately begins to smile and heads into the bedroom for some privacy.

“Xander Harris is Peter’s younger brother, he was adopted when he was two and the guys just found out a couple months ago.” She tells Elena, who’s a distant cousin of Venkman’s on his mother’s side and is frequently sent by the police to deal with the boys after something goes haywire. “There’s a picture of him on Peter’s desk downstairs.”

“Aunt Sheila couldn’t have more children.” Elena says, glaring at Janine as she storms down the stairs, returning minutes later with the picture of the men taken in Four Corners. Staring at the picture, she’s immediately drawn to the young man standing on one end, and traces one finger over the image comparing the facial features of the two men. “Puta, that bastard couldn’t have . . .”

“Looks like he did,” Janine says, “Xander didn’t know he was adopted when the guys met, he found out when he was going though his adoptive parents estates and found the birth certificate that listed one Charlie Venkman as his father. Xander called Egon the next day, wondering if it was just a coincidence.”

“So that’s why Peter’s been trying to find the old con-artist.”

“Yeah, they both want to find out one way or the other before Xander goes back to London.”

“London?”

“Yeah, he grew up in a small town outside of LA, and moved to England after graduation. You remember last year when that school blew up during graduation and so many people were killed? He’s from there.”

“Damn, I remember hearing about that. No wonder he wanted to make a fresh start somewhere else.”

“Yeah, especially considering the fact his two best friends were killed in the explosion and he nearly didn’t make it.” Elena looks at the photo again, this time seeing the cane the younger boy was leaning on. “So the cane’s not for effect then?”

“Nope, he can’t walk without it. He’s also got a thick brace he wears if he’s going to be on his feet for any length of time or sitting in one place, like riding in an airplane.”

“Damn, that poor kid, just starting out in life and that happens to him. So, what’s he doing in London?”

“Works in research for a couple of organizations that specialize in the occult when he’s not going to physical therapy for the leg. And he’s been talking about maybe going to college, but since he’s in England on a Work Visa it would have to be here in the States. Peter’s trying to pull strings and get him into Columbia when he’s ready.”

“So where is he now?”

“Staying in LA with friends of his from school, they own and operate a detective Agency,” Peter says, coming into the room and dropping the phone onto the base, “while he goes through his parents estate.”

“What happened to his parents?”

“Finally managed to drink themselves to death,” Peter says, growling under his breath, “from what everybody who knew them says, they were a waste of oxygen, drunk their paychecks away as soon as they got them, and beat Xander whenever he couldn’t get away.”

“Puta!!” Elena snarls, “I hate bastards like that. Anybody who beats their kid should be taken out and shot, or thrown into a cellblock with the meanest bunch of cons in the damn prison.”

“Yeah,” Peter says darkly, “But at least he’s got Giles, who’s doing his best to show Xander what a loving parent really is.”

“Him and Joyce.” Janine smiles, remembering the woman who had called and talked to her for over an hour about the guys, making sure that Peter was going to be the big brother Xander needed and deserved.

“Joyce?” Peter asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Joyce Summers, his friend Buffy’s mother?”

“Oh yeah, Xander, Giles, and Wesley talked about her when we were in Colorado. When did you find out about her?”

“When she called a couple weeks ago and spent a couple of hours asking me about you guys. She said she’d just found out about Xander’s parents dying and wanted to make sure you weren’t going to be using Xander.”

“And what did you tell her?” Peter smirks, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“That you were an egotistical pain in the ass, vain as a peacock, and while you pretended to be a goofball, there were two things you were very serious about, One of which was family, and the other was being a Ghostbuster.”

“Janine, I’m hurt you think so little of me.” Peter says, gesturing grandly with his other hand and causing Ray to duck as he enters the room.

“That’s because I know you, buster.” Janine turns and pokes Peter in the chest with a finger. “You may act like the clown, but underneath all that crap is a caring human being.”

“Yeah, well don’t spread it around, okay? I have a reputation to uphold.”

Elena smiles at the easy banter of the group, so similar to the camaraderie of the cops she works with at the precinct. She wasn’t sure what to expect when the brass had found out her mother and Peter Venkman’s mother had been cousins, one or two generations removed; and the sole remaining members of the family after the tornado had wiped out the family reunion. The girls, once released from the hospital, had been shuttled off to a foster home by the state and stayed there through their high school graduations. Their foster mother had been so proud when her two girls had graduated at the top of their class, passing away in her sleep later that night from a massive coronary.

They’d been surprised to see how many of the woman’s former foster children had shown up for the funeral, and moved into a small apartment, working two or three jobs to cover the rent and attending the local community college. They’d moved away when each girl had ended up marrying, but got back in touch with the birth of their children, one of ten in Elena’s case, and Sheila had been there for her when the traffic accident took her parents from her when she was in high school, helping her figure out how to keep the family together until everybody had graduated high school, and she’d been there for Peter when Sheila Venkman had finally lost her battle with cancer. She’d been so surprised when she’d graduated from the Police Academy and found him there with her brothers and sisters, cheering just as loudly as the others.

Peter looks over at his younger cousin and smiles, recognizing the sad look in her eyes. “They’d be proud of us, potato, don’t forget it.”

“God, I still hate that damn nickname.” Elena growls half-heartedly, swiping at her eyes. “I just wonder what they would have made of the choices we made in life. I never wanted to be a cop until Mom and Dad were killed, but watching them work to find the hit and run driver changed everything.”

“Yeah, I doubt mom expected me to be busting ghosts for a living.” Peter says, remembering how proud his mom had been when he’d gotten his first summer job. Instead of spending the money on comic books or other stuff, he’d set aside part of the money for college.

* * *

Xander smiles as he listens to Peter bitching and moaning about government agents crawling out of the woodwork. Peter’s complaint of ‘they’re like cockroaches, but you can’t stomp them’ has him laughing as he crawls under the covers and drifts off to sleep.

The knocking on the door wakes him at 7:30, and he wraps a robe around himself before limping to the tv, turning on the security camera for the hallway to see who’s there. The employee grins as he hears the camera begin to track and the door opens. He pushes the cart into the room and puts the tray on the bar, waving off the tip Xander offers, hands him the morning USA today as well as the New York papers, and heads back to the elevator.

Xander settles on the barstool he’d eaten at last night and intersperses reading the papers with eating the delicious breakfast. He folds the paper ten minutes later, finding the plate scraped bare and sighs as he grabs his workout clothes. A doorstop holds the door open while he makes two trips to carry the room service dishes into the hall and he whistles as he heads for the gym. The usual selection of harried businessmen talking into their cell phones as they walk on treadmills greets him as he enters the room, causing the man behind the desk to look up from the paperwork he’d been filling out. The teenage boy wearing a cutoff pair of blue jeans and a muscle shirt entering the room causes him to frown momentarily, but one of the attendants bends down and whispers something in his ears.

“Good morning, Mr. Harris, how can we help you today.”

“Just following my PT’s orders. I need to cycle five miles to keep my leg limber.” Xander grins, heading for an empty exercycle which he climbs on, leaning his cane against the nearby wall before starting to slowly pedal.

“Five miles?”

“We started out at an 8th of a mile, and kept building it up as my leg got stronger. Now, I cycle five miles three times a week whenever I can. When I’m at home, I usually pull out my old bike and go to the village and back for the papers and a muffin.”

“And where is home?”

“Currently outside London, but I’ll probably be traveling between New York, LA, and Denver.”

”Did he give you any other instructions?”

“Walk as much as I can, and stretch my leg as much as possible. We’re not sure if I’ll ever get complete function back, but I’m at 80% and I’m not confined to a wheelchair.”

Xander pedals slowly for a half hour, sliding off the bike with a wince when he hits the five-mile mark. Wiping his face with the offered towel, he limps towards the door. An incoming businessman holds the door open for him and he grins to the desk clerk as he heads for his room and a hot shower. He’s not surprised to find his breakfast dishes have been taken care of, and entering the suite finds the bed made, clean towels in the bathroom, and a sheet to check off for tomorrow’s breakfast in the middle of the desk.

Grinning, he strips off his clothes and enters the bathroom, lowering himself onto the stool that had been placed in his bathroom when he returned from his trip yesterday. Xander showers quickly and dries himself off with the thick towels, definitely not the type seen in most hotel rooms, and heads for the bedroom to dress.

Seeing a sheet under the guidebook he’d been looking at yesterday, he smiles as he sees the hotel offers shuttles to various local attractions. Looking at the list, he sees all of the major attractions, with Ghostbusters headquarters definitely not being on the list, and grins as he slides the list and guidebook into a pocket of his jacket.

Xander puts the brace back on, just in case he can’t get a seat on the subway today, and heads for the elevator. Ten minutes later he’s tracing the route he needs to take on the map and heads for the train pulling into the station.

Janine looks up as the door across the room opens and a young man enters the room. If she hadn’t seen the picture of Xander on Peter’s desk, the shit-eating grin on the boy’s face, identical to the one she’s been itching to slap off her boss’s face for the last ten years, would have told her who he was in a second.

Janine gets up from behind the desk and pulls him into her arms for a hug when Xander’s close enough to talk, sheltering him when Slimer dive-bombs him from the second floor.

“Slimer, Heel.” She says firmly, “go bug Peter, he’s supposed to be paying the bills, not goofing off.” Slimer sticks his tongue out at her, a sight that is going to give Xander nightmares and heads through a wall to the other room.

Peter swears vehemently when Slimer comes into the room, circling around Peter’s head before zipping back out of the room. Peter grabs the signed checks and bills Janine had shoved at him three hours earlier and stomps out of the room, stopping dead in his tracks when he sees who’s sitting behind the desk. The loud yell he lets out brings the others running from upstairs.

Xander looks up in amusement from the paper he’d been reading and grins up at the others. “What’s the matter, Peter? You look like you’ve seen a . . . . ” Xander pauses for the best possible wise-ass effect “ . . . ghost?!?” He smirks at his big brother.

“Brat,” Peter growls, pulling him into a hug. “What are you doing in New York, you’re supposed to be in LA.” He holds the younger man at arms length, looking him over.

“Board meeting for the trust handling my mom’s estate.” Xander grins, shaking Egon and Winston’s hands when Peter finally releases him and grinning as Ray pulls him into a hug. “I figured I’d come in and surprise you guys.”

“You knew!!!” Peter accuses a smirking Janine when she comes back to her desk a minute later.

“Uhh yeah, Xander called yesterday and asked me to help set you up. Why do you think I was keeping everybody busy fixing stuff around the firehouse? This way everybody would be here instead of all over the city.” She snorts in amusement, settling behind the desk. “Now go upstairs, show your brother around the firehouse, and get out of my hair so I can get this stuff ready for mailing.”

“So where’s your stuff?” Peter asks, looking around for signs of luggage. “I’ll put it in the bunkroom.”

“I’ve already got a hotel room,” Xander holds up one hand to halt the protest forming on everybody’s lips. “It’s for the board meeting and I’ve already warned them that I’ll probably be staying with friends here in the City just as soon as the last meeting ends. They’ve got free shuttles to all the major tourist spots, so I can sightsee while I’m here if you guys are busy.”

“Indeed, you don’t need to spend money on a hotel room when there’s plenty of room here. I can even put up a white noise generator so you’re not bothered by any late night calls we might receive, or Ray’s snoring.” Egon says firmly as they head up the stairs, Peter right behind Xander ready to catch him if he falls backwards. “And we can take you to any place you wish to visit.”

“Actually, the only thing I’m paying for is the batch of groceries I picked up on the way to the hotel. Breakfast is free, and it’s not a continental breakfast with just a couple of items either. The local papers and USA Today is delivered to my door, they’ve got a killer gym that’s open 24 hours, with a physical and a massage therapist on call at all times, and a killer whirlpool that I had to use yesterday when my leg was bothering me.”

“Yesterday?” Egon asks, looking over his glasses at the younger man, “And how long have you been in town?” He asks in his driest tone, usually reserved for Peter when he mocks one of Egon’s pet theories.

“Arrived around ten am yesterday, got settled in and spent a couple hours at an occult shop one of Giles old Watcher Mentors owns and operates. Oh by the way, Ray,” Xander winces at the rhyme, “Do you know anything about a Wicca named Anna Harrington? I found out yesterday that she’s supposed to be rather famous.” Egon stares at the young man, not fooled at all by the seemingly off the cuff question Xander had spent most of the morning rehearsing.

“Yeah, she’s supposed to be one of the most powerful white witches who ever lived. A couple members of her old coven live in New York, they own one of the occult bookstores I frequent.” Ray says, pausing when Egon begins to speak.

“Xander, was she your mother?” He asks calmly, preparing lunch.

“Wow Xander, was she?” Ray asks, turning to look at the younger man. He jumps to his feet excitedly when the younger man nods and runs from the room. “ That is so cool, I’ve got some stuff about her that I think you’d like to see.”

Xander grins at the look Peter and Egon give him. “Giles told his old mentor when he asked him to gather a collection of books for me. He told me that she was a famous Wicca and had a couple books that talked about her. I wondered if Ray had anything else about her, since like Giles and Wes he seems to have about everything occult, or knows where to find it.”

Ray comes into the room with an armful of books, and Xander sorts out the ones he got yesterday. Xander pulls them out of the stack and hands them back to Ray, grinning. “I got these yesterday at Xavier Hawkin’s store.”

“He would be the man, except for Therese and Aggie of course, to have the most information on Anna Harrington. He’s always had a soft spot for Wicca studies.” Ray says, picking up the books and heading back to the library to put them away while Winston sets the table, grabbing a couple folding chairs for himself and Janine. Peter moves the pile of books left in the room to the coffee table in the tv room.

“Oh Ray, before I forget,” Xander reaches into to the tote bag by his foot and pulls a cd from it. “Here’s a list of the books I’ve gotten so far from Mr. Hawkins and an occult store in LA, a list of books we’re scanning into the database, and a list of books that were in my Mother’s estate.”

“Okay, I’ll look it over later tonight so we don’t get duplicates when we go to Aggie’s store. Once she finds out you’re Anna’s son, and have already ‘broken out’ magically she’ll probably talk you to death telling you about your mother and have a set of books for you to study from before you can blink.”

“That would be nice, I don’t have very many memories of her, if somebody picking me up when I’m crying and holding me are even memories, and way, way, way too many memories of my Aunt and Uncle, most of them bad.”

“Why did they adopt you anyway, homeboy? From what you’ve said, it sound’s like they never wanted kids.”

“Simple, my mom’s inheritance. They didn’t want anybody else getting their hands on it, and when the school exploded they thought I would die before reaching 21, they washed their hands of me. If they were still alive, I can easily see them tracking me down to try to get money out of me when I came into my inheritance, citing family loyalty and all the time, effort, and money they put into raising me. As it is, I have my Mom’s inheritance, or will in about a year and a half, as well as their estate. If they hadn’t been cremated, they’d be rolling over in their graves that I was getting anything from them.” Xander snorts in dark amusement, “Hopefully they’re burning in whatever version of hell they believed in.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did they die anyway?” Egon asks, flipping grilled cheese sandwiches in the frying pan while Ray stirs a large pot of homemade tomato soup.

“Acute alcohol poisoning.” Xander says, “The police were sent to investigate when the mail and papers hadn’t been picked up in a couple days. According to the ME, they had probably been dead for a couple of days. And, he says from the way their livers looked, they probably would have died in less than a month.”

“Well, I can’t say I feel sorry for them, but that must have been a hard way to die.” Janine says, lifting the tureen of soup and putting it in the middle of the table, “Did they know . . . that they were dying?”

“Yeah, according to the doctor he’d told them they had about six months left to live during their last physical. They’d lost their jobs, too many absences and the company had a strict no drugs or alcohol policy, complete with surprise drug tests, and the doctor had arranged for them to enter a hospice but they died first.”

“So Peter, Xander, you guys ever wonder how Charlie met your mom?”

“How I met who?” A voice from the doorway asks. Everybody turns to the door, seeing a familiar figure, for five of the six anyway, enter the room. “What? Can’t I come visit my boy?”

“Shouldn’t that be your boys, Dad?” Peter asks, getting to his feet and walking over to the older man. “Xander, let me introduce you to our Father, Charlie Venkman.”

“Huh?” Charlie asks, looking around as the only unfamiliar figure in the room slowly gets to his feet and walks over to him. “What are you talking about, Petey?”

“You remember meeting an Anna Harrington about twenty years ago?”

“Peter, that’s a long time ago. I can’t remember if I ever met her or not.”

“Well, she remembered you. There’s a birth certificate for one Alexander James Harrington, Mother Anna Harrington, Father, Charlie Venkman.” Peter says, handing over a copy of Xander’s birth certificate he’d had him send him.

“What?” Charlie grabs the paper and begins to read. “What does this mean?”

“What it means,” the young man standing beside Peter, with Egon standing behind him resting his hands on his shoulders says, “is Congratulations Dad, it’s a teenager.”

Charlie looks back down at the paper in his hand, his face growing whiter by the second. Peter grabs him by the shoulder, shoving him into a chair and pushing his head between his legs. “Don’t pass out on us yet, Dad. Janine, can you bring in another chair? Looks like we’re going to have seven for lunch.”

Winston and Ray each grab an end of the table, opening it up enough for Egon to slip a leaf inside while Janine comes back with a stool from Egon’s lab.

“Here, let me take the stool,” Xander says, pushing the chair he’d been sitting on towards the place setting Egon is setting on the table. “It will be easier on my leg.” Charlie looks up at the words, finally seeing the cane held firmly in, if he can believe the birth certificate still grasped in his hand, his other son’s hand and the thick brace on his leg.

“You back with us, Dad?” Peter asks, holding his father’s wrist, afraid for the moment that the shock might have brought on a heart attack. Much as he dislikes the older Venkman, he sure as hell wouldn’t want his death on his hands. Knowing the older man’s propensity for getting into trouble and coming running to his son for help, he’d probably end up haunting the Ghostbusters and the others wouldn’t want him busting his own Dad. “Once you get something to eat, you and I have to have a long talk.”

“Why don’t you and I go to that bookstore you were talking about Ray?” Xander asks as everybody settles around the table. “That way Peter and his Dad can talk in peace.”

Peter stabs a piece of lettuce from the salad and points the fork at his brother across the table. “Our Dad, Xander. Not just mine, ours.”

“We don’t know that for sure, Peter. There could be two Charlie Venkman’s running around out there.” All the Ghostbusters shudder at that thought.”

“Xander,” Charlie says carefully, seeing the others don’t call the younger man by his full name. “Would you happen to have a picture of your mother with you?”

Xander slides off the stool, limping across the room to where his jacket and bag are hanging on a hook. Reaching into a pocket, he pulls out his wallet and pulls out a picture, handing it over to the other man when he limped back to the table. Charlie takes the picture with shaking hands, staring down at the picture of a dark haired young woman holding a baby. He carefully hands it back over and drops his head into his hands.

“Oh God, what did I do?”

“I take it you remember her now?” Egon asks, wrapping an arm around Xander’s shoulders as he slumps in his seat. Pushing away the half-eaten sandwich, Xander leans against Egon’s comforting shoulder and closes his eyes.

“Xander, why don’t you and I sit in the tv room for a while?” Egon says, pulling the younger man to his feet, leading him out of the room. Leading him into the tv room, Egon drops onto the couch beside Xander, allowing the younger man to talk when he wanted.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen Peter watches his younger brother walk from the room and turns to his attention back to his father.

“Well Pop, I don’t know what you did twenty years ago, but just now you devastated a young man who’s already been through a world of hurt in the past year.” Peter drops the spoon into his empty bowl, grabs his plates and silverware and takes it all to the sink. Scraping his dishes, he begins loading the dishwasher before heading out of the room to check on Egon and Xander. Ray picks up Xander’s and Egon’s half eaten lunches, puts them in the refrigerator, and starts to make a list of groceries he needs to pick up.

In the tv room, Xander turns suddenly and buries his face in Egon’s shirt. Egon begins to rub his hand back and forth on Xander’s head and back, not surprised when his shirt begins to grow warm with silent tears.

“Xander, I’m sure Charlie didn’t mean it quite the way it sounded. He’s a manipulative man, out to get a quick buck however the way he can, but he wouldn’t deliberately set out to hurt either of his sons. Unfortunately, like you’ve just seen he’ll either say or do something rash and Peter usually ends up having to deal with the fallout.” Egon looks up as the door opens silently and Peter watches the two men on the couch with concern in his eyes.

“Xander, in the month since we found out you and Peter were brothers, he speaks constantly of you, saying how proud he is that you’ve stopped putting yourself in harm’s way on the Hellmouth, found a job you’re very good at, and are taking the news that you were adopted and your parents deaths in stride without too much heartbreak. And I, I’ve found myself thinking I couldn’t be any prouder of you than if you were my own son. And though I’ve never met Joyce Summers, I have the feeling that she considers you as much her child as her daughter Buffy was, as does your friend Giles.”

Egon looks down as Xander begins chuckling weakly against his chest. He looks up and Egon hands him a tissue from the box beside the couch, thanks to Peter’s hay fever there’s boxes in every room in the firehouse, and Xander wipes his eyes, looking up as Peter enters the room, dropping down onto the other side of the couch, clapping a hand on Xander’s shoulder.

“I just had a thought of what it would be if I really was the two of yours son, and wondered which one gave birth to me.” Peter blinks at the shocked look on Egon’s face, and begins snickering.

“Egon of course, think about it, the perfect excuse to study the effects pregnancy would have on the male body.”

“Yeah, that and you wouldn’t want to ruin your figure carrying around a baby for nine months.” Winston snickers from the doorway, Janine and Ray standing behind him. “Think about the stretch marks and how hard it would be to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight.”

“Yeah, but think of how much sympathy I could get from women; Everybody wanting to rub the preggy belly, not to mention Janine waiting on me hand and feet because my ankles were swollen. I’d have to give up busting of course, at least until after the baby was born, but that would give me more time to help Janine around the firehouse and work on the business.”

“No way in hell, buster, you’re bad enough when you’re hurt. There’s no way I’d put up with you for six or more months until after you delivered. I wouldn’t kill you because of the baby, I’d quit first.”

“Janine, you’d probably be taking Peter’s spot on the team, at least until he delivered. That means we’d need a new receptionist.”

“No, no, no, and in case I didn’t mention it, Hell no. Nope, not training a new secretary, not after all the time I’ve spent training Janine, and she still doesn’t do what I tell her to.”

“You’ve got that right, buster.”

By this time, Xander’s snickering helplessly as Ray takes Peter’s place on the couch. “Why don’t I give you the tour of the firehouse Janine mentioned and we’ll go visit Aggie and Therese, and after that you can help me pick up groceries and other stuff?”

“Sounds good to me, that way Peter and his Dad,” Xander looks up and rolls his eyes at the look on everybody’s face and hurriedly corrects himself, “oh okay, our Dad, can talk in peace. And, depending on which way we’re heading, Ray can drop me off at the hotel on the way back.”

“Maybe,” Ray says grinning, wagging a finger in his face, “or maybe we’ll just do a little sightseeing without the others. That way we don’t have to listen to Peter and Egon argue in the backseat about where to go first and Peter whining when Egon tells him to behave himself.”

Egon, Ray, and Winston pull Xander from the couch, Ray taking the picture of Xander and his mother from his hand and walking back to the kitchen to grab his coat and tote bag before joining the others in the tour. The tour ends at Janine’s desk and Xander grins as Ray pulls him towards Ecto. Peter and his dad watch from his office as the car pulls out of the firehouse, before Peter drops into the chair behind his desk, laces his fingers behind his head, and turns his attention to his father, who begins pacing.

“Okay Dad, start at the beginning. Since you recognized Xander’s mother in the picture, is it possible that he’s your son? And why didn’t you let Mom and I know? Mom would have made damn sure that Xander came to live with us, instead of being adopted by his Mother’s half-sister and her husband.”

“Why was he adopted? Wait a minute, he wasn’t raised by Tony and Jessica Harris, was he?”

“His mother died of cancer when Xander was two. And yeah, I think that’s their names, the Harris part anyway.”

“Oh God, I met them once, and if it’s the same people, I wouldn’t trust them with a goldfish, let alone a child.”

“Yep, definitely sounds like the same people. Xander says they were abusive alcoholics.”

“Peter, what happened to him? He looks like he’s been through hell.”

“That’s not too far from the truth. I met him back in July, when we got a e-mail from Denver about a case. We ended up calling in some experts from LA and London, one of which was Xander, but it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that we found out that we might be half-brothers, that’s when Xander was going though his parents effects from the estate and found out he was adopted. Do you remember hearing about a school in California that was destroyed by a gas main explosion during graduation?”

Charlie drops into the chair across from his son, his oldest son he reminds himself, and nods, vaguely remembering hearing about it on the news while he was traveling. “He was there, and hurt during the blast. The doctors didn’t expect him to live through the night, according to Giles, the friend he’s currently living with in London, he had a concussion, broken ribs that punctured a lung, his liver was hurt, they had to remove his spleen, and you can see his leg was badly broken. Unfortunately, both of his best friends were killed in the explosion and he was too injured to attend their funerals. And to top it off, the assholes wiped their hands of him, tossing all his stuff out of the house when they found out he might not make it.”

“He’s better off without them.” Charlie snorts in derision, “But what happened after he got out of the hospital?”

“He moved to London with a friend of his, Rupert Giles who was the school librarian.”

“Wait a second, you said he found out he was adopted by going through the estate. What happened to his parents?”

”According to Xander, they finally succeeded in drinking themselves to death. He also says they only had about a month left to live, their livers were so badly damaged from years of alcohol abuse. He’s staying in LA for the time being while he handles the Harris estate, as well as dealing with the trust that’s handling his mother’s estate, which he’s going to get when he turns 21. Now, how about telling me how you met his mother and got her pregnant.”

“Peter, it’s not like that. We only had sex once.”

“If the timing’s just right Dad, one time is all it takes.”

“Ah Shit, better tell Elena to cancel the APB on you.” Peter says, grabbing the phone.

“You’ve been looking for me?” Charlie asks, looking up in shock.

“Uh yeah, I started calling everybody I could think of and leaving messages when Xander told me he was adopted and you were listed as the father. Isn’t that why you showed up?” Peter looks at his father in shock, the handset of the phone cradled between shoulder and neck as a finger hovers over the buttons.

“Actually no, I just felt the urge to come and see my boy. Before I even knew what was happening, I was already headed to New York.”

“Wait, you’re just here for a visit? No scam, no trying to get me to leave the Ghostbusters and help you?”

“Cross my heart and swear on your mother’s grave Petey.” Charlie says, holding his hand up in a scout salute.

Ray grins at Xander as he pulls in front of a non-descript store and holds the door open for him. The woman behind the counter, around Joyce’s age if Xander judges her age right, looks up from the books she’s shelving and grins, waving a hand at Ray.

“You must have been reading my mind, I was about to call you. That book you ordered came in today. Tara honey,” she calls to the young blond woman ringing up a sale, “will you get his book from the special order shelf. The last name would be Stantz.”

The blond ducks shyly when everybody turns to look at her and she hurriedly ducks her head to find the book.

“That’s Tara, my sister’s daughter. She just moved to New York to go to school and is a little shy yet.” Sarah says, shelving the last book with a sigh. “I hate it when Hollyweird comes out with a new movie featuring the craft. Everybody suddenly thinks it’s cool and you have the wannabe’s coming out of the woodwork.” She grins as she starts arranging jars of herbs on the shelves. “Now can I help you Ray?”

“Therese and Aggie here?”

“You just missed them, they left for a late lunch about,” she looks at her watch, “ten minutes ago.”

“Xander, why don’t we look at books while we’re waiting? Xander broke out a couple months ago, and I’m helping him get a selection of books to learn from.”

“Good for you, hon.” Sarah says, “Now what faith do you want to follow?”

“I’m not sure yet, that’s why Ray and the others are helping me get books from all faiths so I can decide. My best friend was a Wicca, and her teacher, god rest their souls, was a Gypsy who said she was a techno pagan. My all but foster father doesn't follow any particular faith that I know of, neither does Wesley, and Ethan used to be a chaos Mage until just recently.”

“Sounds like you’ve been exposed to a number of different faiths, so you already know what magic can and can’t do.” Sarah says, walking over to a section of books. “These are the beginner books we try to steer the true practitioners toward, and not the wannabe’s who come in because they think it’s cool.” She makes quotation marks in the air to emphasize the last word and pulls a book from the shelf.

“Here, this might make it easier,” Ray says, handing over the cd, “This is a list of books Xander either already has or has access to. He’s already been to a store in LA and went to Xavier Hawkin’s store yesterday.”

“Okay then let’s sit down in the office and see what you’ve already got.” Sarah says, heading towards the back of the store, “Tara, buzz me if you need any help honey.”

Xander settles down in an overstuffed chair, waving off a offer of coffee before Sarah settles behind a computer, opening the files and beginning to read.

“You have access to a lot of occult books, young man.”

“I do research with my foster father for a lot of groups that are associated with the occult. We have access to a large number of books, which we’re currently putting in a database for our own use. We’re based in London, but the database will used by a group in LA and the Ghostbusters if you guys want a copy.” Xander looks over at Ray and smiles.

“I’ll have to talk to Egon, he might enjoy being able to pull up any information needed, especially if we’re not at the firehouse and it’s an emergency.” Ray says slowly, then grins. “And it will keep Peter busy turning pages as the books are scanned.”

“Yeah, but then you’d be stuck listening to him complaining about it. I know before I left, Giles, Ethan, and I were taking turns scanning our books, and we could only manage to do it a couple hours a day. Linking the pages and making it searchable by book and section isn’t that hard once you have the proper software, it’s actually turning the pages that is time consuming. Giles Ethan, and I usually managed about ten books a day, and Oz would leave the program running all night.”

“He’s back in the states then?”

“Yeah, he showed up about a day or two after we got back to LA. And he’s already got a couple ideas for that other project we were talking about last month.” And Xander twists the bracelet on his wrist, giving Ray the silent hint.

“Oh good, Egon was wondering how that was going.” Ray says as Sarah shuts the computer down, hands the cd back to Xander, and exits the room, returning about ten minutes later with a armful of books.

“According to what I looked at, you’ve already got all the beginner texts that either Therese, Aggie, or I would recommend, so I’m going to show you a few of the more advanced texts. I see you’ve already got a few from LA, so these should complement them as the door opens again and two older women enter the room.

“Aggie, Therese, what are you doing back here? I thought you were taking a late lunch?” Sarah asks, dropping the books on the desk and turning to her partners in the store.

The woman in the lead blinks and grins, “We did, we’ve been gone a couple hours. Let time slip away from you again, Sarah?”

“Yeah, I must have.” She shrugged, “I got all the shelving done, then Ray and his friend come in looking for some beginner practitioner books and brought a list with the books he already has access to.” Xander yelps as something lands on his shoulder, resolving itself as a small black kitten.

“Samhein, you know better than that.” The second woman through the door chides the kitten, “Don’t jump on the customers.” The kitten ignores her as only a cat can and begins to purr in Xander’s ear. Unbidden, Xander’s hand reaches up to scratch the kitten behind the ears.

“Xander, I’d like you to meet Aggie and Therese Stevens. Aggie, Therese, this is Xander Harris, Anna Harrington’s son.”

Therese and Aggie turn from hanging their jackets up, the coats dropping from suddenly limp fingers. “Annie’s baby?” Aggie says, her voice hushed. She turns to look at the young man sitting on the couch, cuddling a purring kitten and smiles.

“Hold out your hand.” She orders softly, and Xander stops petting the kitten, much to the cat’s disgust, and holds out his left hand. Aggie takes the outstretched hand, closing her eyes as she reads his aura, searching for the wards she, Anna, and Therese had placed on the baby shortly after he was born. She gasps as she finds them.

“You are indeed Annie’s baby boy.” She says, dropping onto the couch and pulling him into her arms. “Thank the Lady Goddess that we’ve found you. When Annie died and the court ruled that you went to your Aunt and Uncle, I was afraid we’d never see you again. Even your father, as unscrupulous as he was at the time, would have been a better choice. In fact, having a child to care for might have been the excuse he needed to grow up.”

“Actually Aggie, he already had a wife and teenage son. But she would have moved heaven and earth to get Xander.”

“You know his wife and son?” She turns her head to look up at Ray.

“His wife is dead, but Xander’s older brother is Peter.”

“Your partner Peter?” Therese asks, picking the coats up from the floor. Ray nods.

“Dammit, I knew that . . .” Therese makes a snarling sound as she tries not to find a word to describe Peter, “I guess Jerk is the best word I can think of now, reminded me of somebody. He’s just like his father, except that at least with Peter it’s mostly an act to keep people from getting too close to him. And from everything I’ve heard about Charlie Venkman, he’s grown up while his dad is still trying to scam the world. How did you find us?”

“My loving Aunt and her husband,” Xander says at his sarcastic best, “never told me I was adopted. They finally managed to drink themselves to death a couple months ago and the lawyer handling the estate was finally able to track me down in London. When I went through their effects, I found out that I was adopted and came to New York to visit Peter. Since I’ve already had a magical breakout, Ray and a couple friends in LA have been helping me get some books to study from.”

“Xander asked me if I had ever heard of Anna earlier today, and I immediately thought of you two. I knew you were in the same coven, and you’d be the one to tell Xander about his mother.”

“Yes, we were very close to your mother. In fact, Therese and I delivered you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, you see your mother already knew you were magically active during her pregnancy, so we worked on warding the room where she would deliver you. You came into the world screaming and fighting, the first thing you did was pee all over me but when I put you in your mother’s arms you calmed right down and just looked at her.”

Aggie briskly stands up and claims the desk chair. “Now, Sarah said you have a list of books you already have access to. Let me have it, and I’ll see what I can add. Sarah, why are these books in here?” Ray grins and hands the cd back across the desk.

“Looking at the list, Xander already has most of the texts I’d suggest a beginner start out with. I thought these would fit in with the other advanced texts he already has.”

“Good thinking,” Aggie agrees, looking over the list. “Most of these books I recognize from Annie’s library. How long have you been magically active?”

“Not quite two months, but I’ve known about magic for nearly four years. Like I told Sarah, my all but foster father is a practitioner, another associate practices as well, my best friend was Wicca, her teacher was a techno-pagan, and my foster father’s lover was, until just recently, a chaos mage.”

Aggie’s eyebrow crawls into her hairline at every word, and Therese turns to stare at him.

“I grew up on the Hellmouth outside LA.”

“Ahh, and here your mother thought you wouldn’t find out about magic and the darker side of the craft until after you reached 21. Figures Jessica would choose to raise you in the most dangerous place on Earth.”

“Is that why she held his inheritance until then?”

“Yes, he was supposed to have come into his full strength by then. That and the fact she knew Tony and Jessica would probably run through Alex’s money if they had access to the estate.”

“Oh yeah, that they would have, then took off to leave me fending for myself. This way, they would have at least had to care for me until I reached eighteen, then come with their hands out begging for money, trying to play on my family loyalty or guilt me into it.”

“I have a feeling that Giles wouldn’t have let them get close enough to you for that to happen.” Ray says, remembering how protective the older man was of Xander in Four Corners.

“Oh, Giles would have gone Ripper on them the second they opened their mouths, then called in Ethan to help dispose of the bodies or hex them if they had been stupid enough to live.”

“Ripper, Ethan?” Therese asks slowly, “That wouldn’t happen to be Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne would it?”

“Yeah, you know them?”

“Ethan’s my pain in the ass brother,” Therese smirks, “I grew up watching what those two idiots got into and ran in the other direction. I was so surprised when Giles joined the Watcher Council. Wait a second, you must be the boy he took in after his Slayer was killed.”

“Yeah, the assholes washed their hands of me when they thought I’d die after the explosion and all their hard work was done the drain. They tossed all my stuff out of the house, luckily Spike and Angel were able to grab it before they changed their minds and pawned it for booze and cigarette money, and Giles shipped it to England with his stuff. When I was recovered enough to get out of the hospital, he moved me into his apartment and worked on getting a work Visa for me.”

“Then Ethan would be the former Chaos Mage you mentioned. How’d he manage to break the addiction?”

“That was my second major working. I’m a pure Mage,” Aggie and Therese grin, giving each other the high five while Sarah looks at him in shock, “Hah, looks like Annie would have won the bet.”

“Huh?” Ray, Xander, and Sarah ask in unison. Therese and Aggie grin in remembrance. “Annie, Terry, and I were wondering one day what faith Alex would follow when he got older.” Aggie smiles at her old friend’s son, “We couldn’t tell from his aura what type of magic he was suited for, Annie just got this big smile on her face and said that Alex would find his own way. But tell me, what happened?”

“When I realized what I could do, tap into the chaos magic without becoming addicted to it, I asked Giles if I thought Ethan would want to be rid of it. I could see the energy surrounding him and feeding on him, so I thought of a pair of huge scissors and cut the cord binding him to the Chaos Energy.” Four jaws, including Ray’s who hadn’t heard what Xander did before now, drop in unison. “Then I created a magical shield around Ethan so the Chaos energy couldn’t attach to him again, and tied it to his own magic so it wouldn’t need replenishing. The shield also worked to heal the magical paths Chaos had burned. When he’s healed, and ready to decide what he wants to do, I’ll remove the shield. I think he might turn to nature magic though, he’s started a couple of window boxes around the Hyperion for herbs and flowers, and he’s got quite the green thumb.”

Therese smiles, “Can you give me their number? I’ll have to call them later tonight.”

“Sure thing,” Xander grabs the piece of paper she hands across the desk and writes down the number. “We’re staying in LA while I settle the estate.”

“The Hyperion? That wouldn’t happen to be the Hyperion Hotel, home of Angel Investigations would it?” Aggie asks with a peculiar look on her face.

“Yeah it is.”

“Then Wesley would be the other practitioner you know.” She sighs, “Talk about Karma coming back and biting you in the butt. Our best friend’s son grew up on the Hellmouth and managed to meet our kid brothers and their lovers.” Therese rolls her eyes and begins to snicker.

“You’re a Wyndham-Pryce?”

“By accident of birth. I had two strikes against me, being born a girl, god forbid the old man’s eldest be female, and illegitimate. My Mom and I moved to the states when I was born and Therese and I took a new name when we had our bonding ceremony. ”

“If you’re Ethan’s sister, would you be related to Derek Rayne too?” Xander asks, turning to Therese.

“Nope,” Therese grins, “Ethan and I had the same mother but different Dads. I take it Derek is another of Winston Rayne’s bastard children?”

“No, he actually married Derek’s mother,” Xander says dryly, “I take it you don’t particularly care for Winston Rayne or the Legacy?”

“Nope, the bastard became involved with Mum because he thought she knew of an artifact, and left her without a word when it didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Never acknowledged Ethan or his other bastard children he’d scattered around the world. So you’ve met this Derek, please tell me he wasn’t stupid enough to follow his father into the Legacy?”

“Yes and no, he heads the San Francisco House but everybody says he’s nothing like his father. He didn’t like the old man much, and tries his best not to be anything like him. And speaking of the Legacy, my loving Aunt and Uncle were members as well.” Aggie and Therese stare at him in disbelief. “You mean the Legacy actually accepted those two worthless bums? Shit, I didn’t think even that bunch was hard up enough to hire them.”

“Oh it’s better than that. Seems dear old Aunt and Uncle stole from them. When they died, a smart building inspector saw the interior dimensions of some of the rooms in the house didn’t match what was on the blueprints. He went looking and found a few hidden spaces chock full of magical artifacts that the pair had been stealing for over twenty years.” Aggie and Therese’s eyes grow hard and they look at each other.

“Xander, do you have a list of what was found in these hidden spaces? Your mother had a few magical items that couldn’t be found after she died.”

“Rupert and Ethan are working on compiling a list right now.” Xander says, “You can ask them when you call tonight. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with them. The Legacy talks about wanting to buy back the stuff they stole, but that’s less than ten percent of their stash. And there may be even more hidden rooms we haven’t found yet. Last I heard, the London branch was going to fly in a guy whose specialty is finding hidden objects and let him go through the house and property. Unfortunately, he’s on a dig right now and won’t be free for a couple weeks yet.” The cell phone in Xander’s jacket begins buzzing and he takes it out, looking at the number calling.

“Hold on, Giles is calling me right now.” He says, “What’s up Giles?”

“Xander, where are you?”

“An Occult bookstore owned by a couple of Ray’s friends. Why?”

“Have you been to your hotel room recently?”

“Not since this morning,”

“I’m afraid your lawyer has been trying to contact you. It seems that two bodies have been found in a car at the bottom of a lake in Colorado. They’ve been positively identified as Sheila and Ira Rosenberg, Willow’s parents. According to some papers they had in the car, they’ve been dead nearly two years.”

“Shit,” Xander says, holding his head. “Yeah, that’s about the time they left, telling Wills that they were going be gone for about a week to ten days on business.”

“According to their wills, they left everything to each other, then to Willow if they died together. And since they died before Willow, the entire estate went to her. The lawyer was wondering if you knew whether she had a will?”

“Yeah, I do.” Xander says, “It’s in my room, in the folder marked personal papers. She left everything to her parents, then Buffy and I. A copy of Buffy’s will is in there too, she left everything to Joyce, then Willow and I if her mom died first.”

“Okay, I’ll call him back and let him know about the will. He’ll probably need to talk to you about it.”

“He’s supposed to be coming out for the board meeting,” Xander says, holding his head as he feels a headache coming on, “I can talk to him then. Oh Giles, is Ethan there?”

“Yes, he’s working on the database right now.” Giles looks up at his lover who’s busy turning pages and looking over his son’s shoulder.

“Give him the phone, I’ve got somebody here who would like to talk to him.” Xander smirks, handing the phone to Therese.

Giles looks up and motions Ethan over. Ethan raises an eyebrow in question and comes over, dropping onto Giles lap to give him a quick kiss.

“Later love, Xander says there’s somebody who would like to talk to you.”

“Hello,” Ethan says, picking up the phone. His face grows pale, and Giles immediately hits the button to put the phone on the speaker when a familiar voice from the past responds.

“Hey brat, heard you finally got rid of the Chaos magic. About damn time.”

“Terry?”

Therese grins as a hushed ‘Terry?’ comes over the line.

“Yeah brat, it’s me. Giles still there?”

“Yes, Therese, I have you on speaker phone.”

“Here, call me at,” she rattles off the store’s private number, “I don’t want to run up Xander’s cell phone bill. Hey, is Wesley Wyndham-Pryce there too?”

“Yes, he’s in the other room. Do you wish us to get him?”

“Yeah, if he’s not busy trying to remove Doyle’s tonsils with his tongue,” Therese says dryly, “It will save us calling later tonight.”

The line clicks dead in her ear. She shuts the phone down and turns back to Xander, finding him leaning against Ray, Sarah handing him a glass of water.

“Xander, what’s the matter?” Ray asks worriedly.

“You remember me telling you guys about my friend Willow? She’s the
Wicca I mentioned earlier.” He tells the three women who are looking worriedly at him. “Anyway, when she died we couldn’t get hold of her parents. Mrs. Summers ended up paying for her funeral and a plot for her. Her parents never did show up, so we had to shut the house up until they returned home. Sheila and Ira were always off on business trips, leaving Willow home alone most of the time. The last time she saw them was after Christmas five months before graduation, they’d said they were going on a business trip and should be back in a week to ten days. She never saw them again.”

“Weren’t the police able to find anything?”

“Willow wasn’t able to report them as missing.”

“Why? Legally, if an adult is missing for more than 72 hours, the police are by law supposed to take a missing person report.”

“Two things, the Sunnydale police department are incompetent assholes who couldn’t find their own butts using both hands and a map.” Ray and Aggie snort, “And the second thing is there’s a history of Sheila and Ira taking off for extended periods of time. The cops told Willow not to worry her pretty little head, Mommy and Daddy will be home soon and not to have too many friends over because they they’d put her in jail if they get a complaint from the neighbors about too much noise.”

“Assholes,” Ray, Aggie, Sarah, and Therese say in unison. “If I left for a trip, telling my daughter when I was going to be back and didn’t show up,” Sarah continues, “I sure as hell would want somebody looking for me. And I sure the hell wouldn’t want my daughter staying in the house by myself.”

“Willow basically raised herself.” Xander sighs, rubbing his temples as the pain pill he took begins to ease his headache. “I don’t think her parents really wanted a child, but whoops, here you go, one baby girl. And since she was a genius, or the next best thing, they felt that she could take care of herself. They’ve been taking off, leaving her there to fend for herself since she was nine or ten.”

“I take it they finally got hold of her parents?”

“Yeah, according to Giles, they pulled their car from a lake in Colorado. From papers inside the car, it looks like they’ve been dead nearly two years. According their wills, they left everything to each other, then Willow if they died at the same time. Willow made a will leaving everything to her parents, then Buffy and me. Giles said the lawyer’s been trying to get hold of me.”

“Shit,” the others say as the phone on the desk begins to ring. Aggie grins and puts it on speaker. “Hey brat.” Therese says, “You got everybody there?”

“Yes Therese, and would you please quit calling me brat?” Ethan sighs, rolling his eyes at the grin on Oz and Giles’ faces. “Now, why would Xander hand you the phone, and how did he ever meet you two? Knowing Aggie, she’s sitting there grinning ear to ear.”

Back in LA Wesley grows pale and turns to look at Ethan, dreading the answer he’s going to get. “How do you know those two hellraisers?”

“Hey squirt,” a familiar voice says from the phone, “no name-calling or I’ll tell Xander about the time you were five and . . .” she lets her voice trail off as Wesley gulps.

“Therese is my older sister, and judging from what Aggie just said, I take it she’s your older sister?” Ethan asks Wesley.

Wesley’s softly muttered, “Unfortunately, yes,” is barely heard of the sound of Aggie laughing.

“Yep,” Aggie chuckles from the phone, “Imagine our surprise when we found out that our old friend’s son, who we delivered, somehow managed to find our kid brothers.”

“Whoa, wait a second, your best friend? And you delivered Xander?”

“It all began earlier today, when Xander asked me if I knew anything about Anna Harrington.” Ray’s voice says from the phone. “I knew Aggie and Therese were members of Anna’s old coven, so I told him I’d bring him over to talk to them. We both found out then that they were her best friends, and they delivered Xander.”

“I hate to have to leave everybody,” Xander says, looking at his watch, “But Ray still has to go grocery shopping.” Ray looks at his watch and groans. “And I’ve got to call the lawyer back. First thing I’m going to do is, if the lawyer will let me, is reimburse Joyce for Willow’s funeral and plot, I’ll have to arrange for the bodies to be shipped home for burial, and see if Joyce wants anything from the house before I put it on the market.”

Xander stands up with a small groan, the pain pill already deadening the ache from sitting too long, handing the sleeping kitten over to Therese who waves him off.

“Samhein is a familiar, in fact he’s descended from your Mother’s cat. He’s chosen you, and it’s familiar’s choice. Hope the others don’t mind having him around. I’ve got a bag of kitten food, a travel case, and a litter box for him.”

“The hotel allows animals.” Xander says, putting the kitten down momentarily, which wakes him up and he makes a protesting noise. “Shhh,” he says, petting the cat’s head, “yes, I’m taking you with me.” The kitten settles down immediately and looks at the case with disdain as Ray starts carrying the rest of the stuff to Ecto. “Yes, I know you don’t like it, but I’ve got another stop to make before I get back to the hotel, then you can get out and run around, just as long as you don’t scratch the furniture.”

“There’s a Petsmart near the grocery store,” Ray tells Xander, “we can stop and get him some more food and litter, as well as a scratching post.”

“Thanks Ray,” Xander says as the kitten begrudgingly, letting all and sundry know that he’s doing this just because Xander asked him to and no other reason, walks into the case, settles down, wraps his tail around his body and goes back to sleep. “Now how much do I owe you for the books?”

“Not a cent,” Aggie waves the checkbook away firmly, “we would never take money from Annie’s son for supplies, and your mother loaned us the money to start our first store. She died a couple weeks later, and following her lawyer’s suggestion we put the money to repay the loan in an interest bearing account. When the business started taking off, we started putting a percent of the profits in the account too. If your mother had lived, she would have been a partner in the store. Her share of the store is yours now, if you want it. I can have our lawyer draft up a partnership agreement later this week.”

Xander looks at the well-stocked store and nods, “Yeah, I think I’d like that. And I’d like to sit down when I have the time and hear more stories about my mother.”

Ray sits behind the wheel of Ecto, Xander sitting quietly in the front passenger seat, the kitten’s supplies on the floor of the back seat and blinks as he realizes all that’s gone on in the last few hours.

“Xander, do you realize everything that’s happened today? You showed up at Headquarters, and Charlie just happens to pick this day to visit Peter? I just happen to know two members of your mother’s old coven, and they just happened to help deliver you? Aggie and Therese just happen to be the older sisters of two of your mentors? And you just happen to be chosen by a familiar who just happens to be descended from your mother’s familiar?”

“Oh yeah,” Xander says, turning to look at the kitten who’s peacefully sleeping. “After growing up on the Hellmouth, I’ve come to believe there is no such thing as coincidence. And when stuff happens to me, it usually tends to happen all at once: Graduation, Buffy and Willow dying, my Aunt and Uncle washing their hands of me, and moving to England. The situation in Four Corners, finding out my Aunt and Uncle had finally drank themselves to death, finding out I was adopted and Peter was my brother, and now meeting Charlie, meeting Therese and Aggie, finding out they were Ethan and Wesley’s older sisters, and the authorities in Colorado just suddenly finding the Rosenbergs? Oh yeah, this is just an example of why I’m a magnet for Demons and other assorted weirdness. If I actually had to stop and think about it,” He pauses as they pull into the parking lot of a mini-mall with a Smart and Final at one end, a bookstore, and a clothing store, and a Petsmart anchoring the other end. “I’d probably have a nervous breakdown.”

“Damn, I wish Egon would have been there with a PKE meter. I would love to see if there was something about you that tends to make everything happen at the same time.” Xander and Ray each grab a cart and start down an aisle.

“Ray, tell you what. The way my luck tends to go,” Xander waves a finger in the middle of the air in front of them, “I bet you anything that,” he looks at Ray who’s busy piling toilet paper on the bottom of the cart, “This is your slow time, right?”

Ray looks up from shoving a third 24 pack of paper under the cart, grabbing a case of paper towels and balancing them in the cart. “Yeah, it’s our dead season if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“I’ll bet you anything, including allowing Egon to study me, short of anything that involves drilling holes in my body, that if I stay in New York for a couple of weeks, something big is going to happen.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“The way my luck usually goes?” Xander asks, grabbing his cart and following Ray down the aisles, “Ohhh, yeah.”

Xander grins at the brief panicked look that crosses Ray’s face, following him down the next aisle. They split up when they reach the food section, Xander finding and putting fresh fruit and vegetables, a package of boneless chicken breasts, a package of steaks, tomatoes, a bag of buffalo wings, veggie oil for stirfry, and walks over to the books and dvds, adding an assortment of each to the basket.

He grins as he gets in line behind Ray, seeing the cart is piled high with food and other supplies for the firehouse, and three warehouse employees, obviously used to this begin packing up the supplies.

“Sir, I can get you over here.” A checker approaches Xander, grabbing the cart and pushing it into her lane. Ray looks over and grins. “Go ahead Xan, I’m going to be a while,” he pulls a stack of coupons from a pocket and hands them to the cashier, “and we don’t want to keep your cat waiting. Have them,” he nods at two employees who begin bagging Xander’s purchases, “put your cart with my stuff and I’ll put it in the car.” Ray tosses the keys across the lane to Xander, who grabs them out of the air, and, with three employees pushing loaded carts, leads the way out to the car. Xan hits the button to unlock the doors and the first employee begins putting the bags in the huge cargo area. Grabbing the pet carrier from the back, he looks over at the parking lot to the Petsmart store.

“Hold on Sir,” one of the employees, a cute redhead with freckles on her nose who looks to be about his age says when she sees the cat carrier and the cane, “ Give me the keys, I’ll run in and get Mr. Stantz’ second load, and Sue,” she waves to a store employee who’s zipping around the lot with a golf cart, “can run you over to the Pet store.” Xan looks over as Ray appears in the doorway with the next round of carts and waves him on.

“Thanks, that will be easier on my leg.” Xander settles in the passenger seat, the cat carrier settled firmly on his lap and grins as the employee runs along the edge of the parking lots and drops him off right at the door.

“Thank you,”

“You’re welcome sir,” She grins and hurries off, ducking through open parking spots, grabbing empty carts and taking them back to the store.

“Hello sir, welcome to Petsmart.” The employee at the door says as a young man, holding a cane in one hand and a carrier holding a kitten with a disgusted look on his face in the other hand limps into the store. “Can I help you with your shopping?”

“Yeah, I need a bag of kitten chow, a scratching post, and a bag of litter. Oh, and I’ll probably need a bed for him too, assuming he just doesn’t decide he’d rather sleep on my bed instead.”

The employee nods for somebody to cover the door as she grabs a cart. Their first stop is the pet food aisle and he grabs another bag of the kitten food Aggie and Therese had given him.

“Is this bag going to last a couple weeks? I don’t know how long I’ll be in town and I don’t want to buy a bigger bag.”

“Oh yes sir, that bag will easily last two weeks. Just take enough to fit in the palm of your hand and put it in his dish. And refill it when necessary. Oh sir, if you’re going to be flying, you’re going to need some papers from the airline to take your kitten along.”

“Hmm, hadn’t thought about that.” Xander says, “I only brought a one way ticket since I wasn’t sure when I was heading back to LA. Maybe I’ll look around and find a cheap used car and drive back. The PT said I could start driving again whenever I wanted to.”

Ten minutes later Ray grins behind the wheel of Ecto as Xander emerges from the store, cart loaded down with a bag of kitten food, cat litter, a bed, and a handful of toys.

“Now where to?”

“I’d better head back to the hotel,” Xander names the place he’s staying and Ray nods, “and check in with my lawyer.”

Ray pulls up in front of the hotel a half-hour later, the doorman on duty raising an eyebrow until he sees Xander get out of the passenger seat. He immediately summons a bellhop with a cart, and soon Xander’s stuff, all except the pet carrier held securely in his hand, is loaded on the cart.

“Sir, Mr. Harris, you have a number of messages.” The clerk on duty calls as Xander comes into the desk area. Xander nods, grabs the messages, and begins to read them as he heads for the elevator. The messages from the lawyer and Giles are what he expected, and he opens the hotel room door, allowing the bellhop to block the door open, push the cart in, and empty it while he faxes his breakfast order, orders a ‘genuine New York pizza made to order’ from room service, and dials the home phone number of his lawyer before finally putting the carrier down and opening the door.

The kitten slowly stretches as he steps daintily out of the carrier, walking across the bedspread before jumping to the floor and staring up at his new companion in anticipation as Xander fills his food and water dishes.

“Hello?” says the voice in the receiver as he puts the kitty food dishes down on the floor.

“Hello Mr. James, it’s Xander Harris returning your call?” Xander walks over to the closet, removing his jacket and hanging it up with a sigh before limping to the couch and putting his feet up on an ottoman.

“Oh Mr. Harris, thank you for calling me back and telling Mr. Giles where to find Ms. Rosenberg’s will. The authorities in Colorado are going over the scene of the accident right now, but unfortunately after all this time there’s no way of knowing what happened unless the autopsies find anything. Once the bodies are released I will have them flown to LA. Do you know which funeral home the Rosenbergs would have preferred to use?”

“Uh yeah,” Xander names the funeral home that handled the ceremony for Willow’s grandparents. “And I vaguely remember them saying that they had prepaid their funeral expenses. I know Mrs. Summers asked if there was a prepaid service for Willow after the explosion but couldn’t find anything.” Xander hears his lawyer write something on a piece of paper, “Now how long do you think it will take for the estate to be settled.”

“It will probably be a couple of months, Mr. Harris. Colorado is still investigating the accident, and the bodies will need to be autopsied before they can be released.”

“Okay, then I won’t need to cut my trip short to run back to LA.” Xander sighs in relief, pulling off his loafers and heavy brace, beginning the stretching exercises his PT had taught him to help with muscle fatigue and cramps. “When the estate is settled, the first thing I’d like is for Mrs. Summers to be reimbursed the cost of Willow’s funeral and cemetery plot.”

“That can be arranged, Mr. Harris. Is Mrs. Summers the mother of the young woman mentioned in the will, Buffy?”

“Yes Mr. James, Joyce is Buffy’s mother. And according to her will, Joyce inherited everything Buffy had at the time of her death.”

“That makes everything much easier.” Alex James says with a sigh of relief. “Please tell me just how why your friends felt that they needed wills, as young as they were?”

“We’d had one of those career planning classes our junior year. One of our assignments was to create a mock will for us. Most of the rest of the class goofed it off, making odd bequests to each other, but the three of us decided to do the real deal, and Willow’s dad had a program on his computer that allowed up to fill them out, print them up, so we did. We had a couple teachers witness our signatures and we each kept copies in case something happened.”

* * *

“Well, that explains that.” Alex James smiles as he watches his young daughter toddle across the room, trying to get away from her mother and the threatened bath. “I’ll let you go, I need to go corral my daughter before she gets away.” Alex hangs the phone up with a grin and swoops down, grabbing his daughter in his arms and blowing a raspberry on her neck.

“Thanks, Honey, who was on the phone?” Annette James takes their daughter from his arms and plants a quick kiss on his cheek.

“Remember me telling you a month or so ago about the case the partners had given me? The Harris couple had died and we needed to track down their son?” Annette nods, dimly remembering her husband swearing about the case. “Well, I was able to track him down last month in England, and we’ve been working on settling the estate. Today, I had another case dropped in my lap, a Sunnydale couple had been found dead in a Colorado lake a couple days ago, and according to the contents of the car, they’d been down there nearly two years. According to their will, they left everything to their daughter, but their daughter’s been dead over a year herself.”

“What happened to her?”

“She died in the explosion at the high school.” Alex looks at his wife, realizes she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and explains. “Last July, during graduation there was a gas main explosion at the old High School. A lot of people were either hurt or killed outright.”

“Damn, I didn’t know.” Annette says sadly, “those poor families. Graduation is supposed to be a time to celebrate.”

“Anyway, I noticed in the records that one of her friends was Mr. Harris, so I called him in LA, but he had flown to New York yesterday. I told his foster father Mr. Giles what had happened and he passed on the number of the hotel he was staying at and told me he’d call Xander and see if his friend had a will. He called back an hour later, saying that she did have a will, Xander had a copy of it in his possession and faxed it to me.”

“Damn it’s sad that an 18 year old has a will, but I’m glad that you don’t have to start hunting for any relatives and go through the process of probating the estate without one.”

* * *

Xander drops the phone with a silent groan and levers himself to his feet, walking to the kitchenette to put away the groceries. Ten minutes later the refrigerator and cabinets are full, the books and DVDS are placed on the stand by the couch and he’s debating whether to change into pajamas or grab his workout clothes and soak in the Jacuzzi again when a knock at the door announces room service.

* * *

The others are waiting impatiently at the Firehouse when Ray pulls into the garage. “About damn time, Tex, I thought we were going to starve to death,” Peter gripes good-naturedly as he opens the back of the vehicle and begins to grab bags. “What the hell kept you?”

“It’s a long story, and I want everybody around when I tell it, because otherwise you won’t believe me.” Ray says, seeing Charlie and Janine in the background. “Janine, order some pizzas will you?” Peter takes a glimpse of the look on his face and doesn’t argue, instead putting his bag in Janine’s arms and heading for the phone.

“Okay Tex, the pizzas are ordered and we’re all here,” Peter says when everybody is upstairs in the kitchen putting stuff away. “Now tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay, I’ll start at the beginning. We went over to Aggie and Therese’s bookstore and Sarah found Xander some intermediate texts to complement what he already has. Aggie and Therese returned after a long lunch, and not only does it turn out that they know Xander’s mother, they helped deliver him.”

“You’re shitting me, homeboy.” Winston says, as Peter turns to stare at Ray. “God’s honest truth, guys. I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Okay, tell us more.”

“Okay, like I was saying, they helped deliver Xander. Oh, they remembered you Charlie,” Ray turns to look at the Elder Venkman who’s busy putting cases of canned goods in the pantry, “and say that they had almost wished you had gotten Xander, it might have given you the reason you needed to grow up, and when I told them that you and Xander were brothers, Therese said that you reminded her a lot of Charlie, except that, in her words, you had grown up.” Peter and Charlie grin, then make ‘go on, finish the story’ motions at the same time.

“Okay, we were sitting there talking, Aggie was going over the list of books Xander had access to while we were talking about why Anna had decided to hold Xander’s inheritance in trust until he turned 21.” The others look interested and Ray briefly repeats Aggie’s reasoning. Peter and Charlie growl, then grin as Ray repeats what Xander said Giles would have done if they’d shown up looking for money.

“Anyway, Therese repeats the name Ethan,”

“The guy that Xander helped in LA?”

“Yeah, and Xander told us what he did. You won’t believe it Egon. Oh, and they’re putting their occult books on a database and wondered if we might be interested in joining them. I know it would be easier to look stuff up in the field,” Egon looks interested in the idea, then shakes his head and makes a ‘get on with the story’ motion of his own.

“Okay, it turns out that Ethan happens to be her kid brother, so she knows both Ethan and Rupert, and . . .”Ray holds up one hand in a stop gesture, “it also turns out that Wesley is Aggie’s kid brother.” Ray grins as the other makes complaining sounds, then heads downstairs when he hears the buzzer. He comes back up with the pizzas five minutes later and everybody begins to dig in.

“Okay, that’s farfetched even for Xander.”

“Oh it gets better.” Ray says, “Xander got a call from Giles, and it turns out that that his friend Willow,” Ray tells Charlie about Xander’s best friends who died in the battle while the others nod, “anyway, her parents have been missing since just after Christmas year before last and the asshole cops in Sunnydale,” Peter and Winston blink because Ray almost never swears, “Refused to take a missing persons report on them, telling Willow that she shouldn’t worry her pretty little head, and that her parents would show up sooner or later, they always did.”

“What, you mean her parents routinely took off and left her home alone?”

“Yeah, according to Xander they’d never really wanted children, Willow was an ‘oops’ baby, and that since she was a genius, she could take care of herself.”

“Now that is just as much abuse as the Harris’ beating Xander. The cops should have gotten their heads out of their asses and taken those kids away from them.” Peter snarls.

“Anyway,” Ray continues the story, “a car was found in a Colorado lake and the occupants have been tentatively identified as her parents. And from papers found in the car, they’ve probably been dead for nearly two years. Giles asked if Xander knew if she’d had a will, and Xander ‘just happened’” Ray makes emphasis points in the air with his fingers, “ to have a copy in his personal papers back in LA.”

“Now that’s taking coincidence just a bit too far.”

“Oh, that’s not the entire story. Aggie and Therese had a black kitten in their office, who turned out to be a familiar. He bonded to Xander and they gave him to Xander. It turns out that he’s a descendant of Xander’s mother’s cat.”

Ray looks around and grins as the others blink, going over the story in their minds. “Xander finally looked at his watch, reminded me that I still had to buy groceries, and we left the shop. We shopped, I dropped Xander off at his hotel so he could call the Lawyer back, and I came back here.”

“Xander always said that he didn’t believe in coincidence anymore after growing up on the Hellmouth.” Peter says, “Now I know what he meant. That was seriously weird.”

“Umm Peter, there’s something else.”

“Huh?”

“Xander and Charlie just happen to show up at the firehouse, within an hour of each other?” Ray asks, “and you said that Charlie hadn’t planned on coming to see us, but before he knew it he was headed to New York?”

“Okay,” Winston says slowly “That’s gone beyond strange, passed the damn weird stage, and is bordering on fucking freaky.”

“I would have liked to have been there with a PKE meter.” Egon says, “I wonder if Xander has something about him that alters the laws of probability around him.”

“Uh, uh, uh ‘Gon, not using my little bro as a test subject.”

“Actually Peter, Xander offered himself as a test subject.” Ray says over Egon’s protests that he’d never hurt Xander. “Though I really hope it doesn’t happen.”

“Huh?” Peter and Egon says in unison.

“Xander made a bet with me, that if he stayed in New York more than a couple of weeks, that something big would happen.”

“Ohh, that we don’t need. But I’ll check the packs later tonight just in case.” Winston says. “And I shall check the containment unit.” Egon says.

“Xander said stuff like this happens to him and when it does, it usually happens all at once and gave me a couple examples but I think at least one of them can be explained away.”

“Okay Tex, tell me what he told you.” Peter orders as Egon grabs a notepad from a drawer and prepares to take notes.

“Okay, the first example was Graduation, his Aunt and Uncle dumping him, his friends dying, and moving to England but that’s simple cause and effect. His friends died during graduation, he was hurt which lead to the Harris’ washing their hands of him, which led in turn to him moving in with Giles, which led to moving to England.”

“Yeah, I can see that one.” Peter and Egon nod. “And the second example?”

“Is almost as easy to explain. We called in Giles and Wesley about Four Corners, and Xander got the letter just before they left about the Harris’ dying of alcohol poisoning, finding out he was adopted, and that Peter is his older brother. Now the Harris’ dying led to finding out he was adopted and Charlie was listed as his father on the birth certificate, but if Egon hadn’t called in Wesley and Giles, you and Xander would never have met, and he’d have never called Egon to find out if Charlie and Peter were related.”

Peter shudders, “I’d rather not think about that, Tex. So tell me how Xander managed to free Ethan from the Chaos Magic.”

“You won’t believe it, he said that he could see the chaos energy feed on Ethan, thought up a pair of scissors and ‘cut’ the tie between Ethan and the chaos, then before the energy could attach itself to him again, he thought up a shield and attached it to Ethan’s own magic so it wouldn’t need a power source and it’s healing the magical pathways burned by the Chaos. And this was all without any training in magic, think of what he can do once he knows what he’s doing.”

* * *

Xander looks over at the clock and turns on the local news before picking up a slice of pizza, grinning when the kitten leaps into his lap and nudges his hand to be petted. The phone rings and he grabs it with his free hand as the kitten begins to nibble on his fingers.

“Hello?”

“Xander, only you could go to New York, have Ray just happen to know a couple members of your Mother’s old coven, have them just happen to have delivered you, and just happen to have them turn out to be our older sisters.”

“Oh hey Wes, you and Ethan still talking to me after siccing your sisters on you?”

“Well, no doubt Angel and Spike have lost any shreds of respect they might have had for us after listening to them, but we’ll no doubt survive.” Across the room Spike snickers at his plaintive tone.

“Oh, that’s not even the best part of my day. Guess who else decided to visit Peter the same time I was there?”

“Your father?” Wesley asks, while across the room Giles looks up in interest.

“Oh yeah, can we say that this is just a little too damn coincidental? Not that I believe in coincidences, mind you. Not after living on the Hellmouth for the past seventeen years.”

“Xander, how are you feeling?”

“You mean about the Rosenbergs? I guess I’m torn, I was hoping they’d show up one day, maybe they’d heard about the explosion, but didn’t know Willow had died, but another part of me was hoping they were dead because I didn’t want them to have known that Wills had died and they just didn’t care enough about her to bother to come home. But how did they find the car anyway, after all this time?”

“According to the detective I talked to,” Wesley says, “the lake in question is a popular attraction for scuba divers. An instructor was teaching a couple beginners when they found the car. I doubt we’ll ever know just how the car got in the lake, but there’s a road overlooking the lake and they think that they hit a patch of black ice and skidded into the lake. The only question is, what were they doing in Colorado in the first place?”

“I don’t know, half the time they never bothered to leave Wills an itinerary for the trip, or even tell her how long they’d be gone. Maybe when the house is opened again and I have the chance to go through stuff, I can find out where they were going. Oh, hold on a second, Wes.” Xan says, turning the volume up on the tv as a weather alert comes over the air. “Looks like we’re going to get one hell of a thunderstorm in a couple of hours.”

“Do you have candles or a flashlight handy in case the hotel loses electricity?” Wesley asks.

“Yup, that’s one of the first things I checked. The hotel has a backup generator just in case, but there’s also a flashlight in the kitchen cupboard and matches on the fireplace. I think I’ll take a hot bath, finish off the pizza I ordered from room service, open up a new mystery novel I brought today, and read for a while. Yawp.”

“Xander?”

“Sorry Wes, guess I was paying too much attention to the phone and stopped petting Samhein,” Xander says, giving the now purring kitten an extra scratch behind the ears. Samhein smugly sheathes his tiny, needle-sharp claws and winks.

Xander puts the phone down as the sky begins to darken and a light rain begins to fall, then moves the kitten from his lap to a cushion and stands up, walking to the kitchen and grabbing the flashlight just in case.

“Wonderful,” Xander mutters, “the batteries are dead. I’ll be back up in a couple minutes, kittenkat, so don’t change the channel or make any long distance phone calls.” Xander reaches down, pets the kitten one last time and heads for the door.

“Mr. Harris, how can I help you?” the clerk behind the counter asks as Xander limps from the elevator.

“Can I get a set of fresh batteries for the flashlight? I heard we’ve got a storm coming in and I don’t want to get caught unprepared.”

“Certainly sir,” she grins as she heads for the maintenance closet, returning five minutes later with a fresh battery pack and a lantern under one arm. “Here sir, we just got these last week and haven’t had the time to put them in the rooms yet. They don’t need batteries, just wind the handle for fifteen minutes, she shows him the handle and a dial over it, “and when it’s fully charged it’s good for four hours of light before it needs recharging. And it’s got a built in radio.”

“Cool,” Xander says with a grin, “I’ve heard about these, but hadn’t seen one yet. Thanks.” Xander tucks it under one hand, grabs the battery pack and cane with the other hand and heads back upstairs. Samhein watches in boredom as he replaces the batteries, charges the battery of the lantern, and grabs a candle and match from the mantle. Humans, you really have to pity them sometimes, with no real night vision like cats.

Xander looks around the room as the rain begins to slide down the window in heavy sheets, and turns a chair around by the window so he can look outside. A crack of lightning quickly changes his mind and he draws the heavy drapes over the window before heading back to the couch in the sitting room and grabs a hotel notepad to make a list of stuff that will need to be done when he gets back to LA.

1. Turn off electricity and phone at Will’s house
2. Buy suit for funerals, if there are any
3. Go through contents of the house for estate with appraiser.
4. Pack up clothes for thrift store?

Xander sits tapping the pen against his teeth, the notepad tossed onto the coffee table when a crack of thunder heralds the lights going out. Xander sits a minute, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and when the lights don’t come back on he grabs the flashlight and turns the lantern on for light and news.

Aiming the flashlight around the room he sees Samhain lying on the bed grooming his back leg and grins as the phone begins to ring.

“Mr. Harris, are you all right?” the desk clerk asks, as various hotel staff members phone occupied rooms to check on the guests while more staff members grab flashlights and batteries, heading for the stairs to replace flashlights in the rooms where they’re either missing or dead.

“Yeah, I’m just glad I came down and got fresh batteries for the flashlight. I thought the hotel was supposed to have a backup generator in case this happened?”

“Yes sir, we do and our maintenance staff is working on getting it up and running right now. According to the power company, the substation supplying our area was struck by lightning, and they’re not sure when we’ll be getting electricity back. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and are bringing up a stock of candles, bottled water, and a block of dry ice for your refrigerator. It should be about ten to fifteen minutes.” She says, looking at her watch, grateful that the hotel management had thought to stock up on those items just in case.

* * *
The lights begin to flicker at the firehouse, and everybody holds their breath until the generator hooked to the containment unit kicks to life. Ray immediately turns on the radio to the all news channel and the announcement of the power outage has him headed to the phone.

“Raymond?”

“Xander’s hotel is in that area.” Ray says, “I’m calling to see if he going to be okay with the storm, the power outage, everything that happened today, and being in a strange city by himself.”

* * *
“Hello?” Xander asks, picking up his ringing cell phone as the lightning outside makes the room bright as day, even through the drape over the window.

“Hey Xan, you okay? We just heard the power in your neighborhood was knocked out and I wondered if you wanted to come to the firehouse until power was restored.”

“Ray, you are not driving in this weather.” Xander orders sternly, “I’ve got a wind up light and radio here, and I’ve heard that the police are telling people not to be on the roads unless necessary, and you guys coming to soothe my scared butt is not necessary.”

“Doesn’t the hotel have a backup generator for times like this?”

“Yeah, but something’s happened to it and the maintenance team is working on it now. I’ve got a flashlight, the lantern with built in radio that lasts four hours for fifteen minutes of cranking, and they’re bringing up more candles, bottled water, and dry ice for the refrigerator in case this lasts a while. It’s about,” Xander twists his hand into the circle of light from the lantern, “nine-thirty now, and the storm is supposed to pass through the area by morning.” Xander, walks over, opens the drape and watches the rain beat against the window, “I’ll probably keep the radio going a couple hours just for the noise, take a pain pill around midnight if the generator hasn’t kicked in by then, and let it and Samhein soothe me to sleep.” A knock on the door makes him stop and he grabs the flashlight to light the way, finding a hotel employee in the hallway with a bag of supplies and two thick blankets, since the heat and cooling systems had been knocked down with the power.

“Thanks, I was just thinking it was turning a little cooler.” Xander grins gratefully accepting the blankets.

“Here sir, let me light the fireplace for you.” The employee walks over to the fireplace and turns the gas fire on.

“Oh, thank you. I wasn’t sure if it was just for show or actually worked.” Xander holds his hands to the flickering flames and picks up his cell phone as the employee lets himself out.

“Xan, you still there?”

“Yeah Ray, the hotel just sent up the bottled water, Dry ice,” Xander walks over and puts it in the refrigerator and freezer, knowing that at least the food in there won’t go bad if the power outage lasts for a while, “more candles, a couple warm blankets for the bed since the heating and cooling system got knocked out with the power, and turned the fireplace in my room on for me. So I’m set until morning.”

Ray grins at the upbeat sound in Xander’s voice and lets him go, allowing Xander to toss the cell phone on the desk, pull on a set of pajamas from the dresser and curl up on the couch, a purring Samhein in his lap as they watch the flames flicker behind the glass.

* * *

Meanwhile, down in the lobby pandemonium reigns as the assistant manager on duty makes a list of what rooms are occupied, if they’ve all got flashlight and candles, and another list of what will need to be purchased if the generator doesn’t kick in soon.

He looks up as the door to the stairway opens and the employee he sent up to Mr. Harris’s floor comes into the lobby. “Mr. Harris taken care of?”

“Yep, gave him a supply of candles, bottled water, the dry ice for the refrigerator, a couple blankets since it’s turning cooler, and turned on his fireplace for him. He’ll be set for the rest of the night, hopefully.”

“Good, now we just have to find out why the generator’s refusing to turn over.”

“Because it’s a piece of shit that should have been replaced years ago.” The head of maintenance for the night shift comes into view, wiping his hands on a rag. “ It’s seized up completely. I’ve told management repeatedly that it needed to be replaced, but they kept turning me down, saying it wasn’t necessary. I knew something like this was going to happen someday. Thankfully it’s early fall and not the middle of winter.”

Everybody turns to look at the manager and he makes a split decision. “Okay, how soon can the generator be fixed?”

“It can’t, it’s going to have to be replaced entirely.”

“Wonderful, I’m going to go into my office and make a conference call to the other managers and see if we can decide what needs to be done. If you get the generator the minutes the stores open in the morning, how soon before it can be operational?”

“Not possible, a generator that size would have to be special ordered. We’re talking six weeks, minimum.”

“Oh lovely, it gets better and better.” The manager mutters under his breath, “Okay, somebody stay at the desk in case a guest calls down for something, everybody else find a place to settle down and try to stay warm. Sam, you come in with me to tell them the bad news.”

"Gladly," he smirks, "I'm going to enjoy telling the brass 'I told you so'."
He smirks, gives a final wipe of his hands on a moist towelette grabbed from
a restroom and follows the manager into his office, winding the handle on
the lantern as the manager pecks out numbers on the telephone system using
the flashlight held between neck and shoulder for light.

"Okay Thomas, you've got everybody on conference call. What's going on that
it's so damn important you've got to pull us away from other things?"

"Well gentlemen, hate to inform you but our entire neighborhood lost power
when lightning struck the substation and our generator failed to start."

"Why the hell didn't you call us sooner?" One of the board of directors says
angrily from the phone.

"Well excuse me for taking the time to make sure our guests weren't injured
and had a source of light besides the lightning." Thomas snarls in the
phone. "It takes time to check a printout which shows the occupied rooms,
call each of them, then run up candles, bottled water, and dry ice so the
food in their refrigerators don't go bad."

"Okay, calm down everybody." Another voice says from the phone. "Thomas didn't do anything wrong . . ."

"He still should have called the minute the generator refused to come to
life and I'm going to bring it up before the board of directors." The first
complaining voice says.

"Shut the hell up, Danvers." Another voice growls in the phone. "You damned
crybaby. Okay, how long is it going to be until the generator can be fixed?
And what's the matter with it?"

"It can't be fixed," Sam says, putting the lantern down. "The generator
seized up and will have to be replaced."

Two or three different voices begin to speak at once until somebody roars at
them to shut up.

"And how did this happen?"

"I've told management at least five times in the last two years that the
generator needed to be replaced," Sam snarls, "but kept getting told that
no, it doesn't, and we should just keep it in working order. It was just a
matter of time before something like this happened. Luckily, it's not the
middle of winter and people won't freeze before morning."

"How soon can it be replaced?" the voice of reason on the board asks calmly.
"And shut the hell up Danvers, like Sam said the need for a new backup
generator has been brought up every board meeting and you've shot it down
every damn time as too much money. Now, it's come to back to bite us on the
ass."

"Our generator is over twenty years old, a new one that size will need to be
special ordered, six weeks minimum assuming they would be able to start on
ours right this tomorrow and worked on it 24/7. And we can't just run out
and buy a new generator the minute the stores open, any we brought would
burn up immediately because they aren't meant to handle to load we'd put on
it."

"Hell," the lone voice of reason says, and you get the idea he's tiredly
running a hand over his face as his voice appears muffled for a second.
"How many guests do we currently have?"

"75 guests, which is why it took us a couple of hours to get everything
settled enough to call you. All our guests have flashlights, a supply of
candles, enough bottled water to last the night, and those suites that have
refrigerators have a supply of dry ice."

"The kitchens have their own backup generators so the food doesn't spoil,
right?"

"Yes, thankfully."

"Any idea on when the power will be restored?"

"Nope, according to the police reports I'm getting, the fire at the
substation has been put out by the rain, but it's keeping repair crews from
investigating the damage. And rerouting power around the substation is
going to take a couple hours."

"Okay, keep somebody on the desk in case a guest calls needing something,
and tell the others to get some shut eye." The lone voice of reason says,
"The restaurant managers will have to decide in the morning whether they'll
be opening or not."

* * *

Ray sighs as he drops the phone into the base, walking over to the window and staring at the streetlights through the sheet of rain pouring down the window.

“Ray, how was Xander?” Peter asks from the doorway.

“The hotel’s backup generator hasn’t kicked in yet, so the hotel employees were running around delivering candles and other supplies to the occupied rooms. I offered to go over and get him, but he said that the police are asking motorists to stay off the roads unless necessary, and quote ‘soothing my sorry butt isn’t necessary’. He also said that if the generator hadn’t kicked in by midnight, he was going to take a pain pill and let it and Samhein soothe him to sleep. The hotel had sent up a couple warm blankets and turned on the fireplace in his room, so he was staying warm.”

“Good,” Peter says, “Though I still wish he were staying here instead. I don’t like the idea of him being alone in a strange city with no electricity, especially after all that’s happened today.”

“Peter,” Egon says from his spot on the couch. “Xander is nineteen years old, not two. And he’s not really alone.” Peter and Ray look at Egon, who calmly puts down the issue of psychology today he’d been reading and taps his wrist.

“Ahh, hell, forgot about that.” Peter says, running a hand over his face. “But you’re right, he’s not really alone, is he?”

* * *

Meanwhile, in his hotel room Xander walks over to the window, cracking it open partway to get rid of the feeling he’s suffocating. Looking out the window, darkness as far as the eye can see he’s briefly reminded of Four Corners, at least until a police car, siren blaring, goes down the street followed by an ambulance, lights flashing.

Shutting the window, he grabs the flashlight and heads for the bathroom. Coming back to the couch, he strips to his boxers, turns the radio up for noise so he doesn’t feel like the only person in the world, and slides under the blankets deciding that since it’s right next to the fireplace it’s going to be warmer than his bed. When he can barely keep his eyes open, he turns off the lantern and radio, leaving the gas flames flickering behind the glass doors the only source of light in the room.

His eyes drift shut a couple minutes later and Samhain prowls around the room a while before he leaps onto the couch, burrowing under the covers next to Xander. They’re woken up late the next morning by sunlight peeking around the drapes on the window. Stretching and yawning, Xander grabs the tv remote, finding the power still off before he slides into the clothes from the day before. Shutting the gas fireplace off, he walks over to the window and cracks it open to air the room out before heading into the bathroom using the last of the water to wash his face and hands and flush the toilet.

Coming out of the bathroom, Xander finds Samhain sitting beside his empty water bowl. Cracking open one of the bottles of water, he fills the water and food dishes, he opens the refrigerator and listlessly looks inside trying to decide what he should make for breakfast, if it’s even possible without a way to cook, when a knock is heard at the door.

Slowly making his way across the room, while sleeping on the couch did keep him warm last night it did nothing for his bad leg, he finds a hotel employee with a case of bottled water on his shoulder followed by a second employee with a takeout box and the morning papers in his hands.

“I can’t believe you guys carried those up ten flights of stairs. Not to mention the restaurant is even open.”

“Luckily, the stoves in the restaurant are gas, so they can still cook if they’re lighted manually, same with the ovens. The only problem is having to put everything in takeout trays and eat with plastic forks, spoons, and knives.”

“Any update on when the power is going to be restored?”

“According to the latest reports, it’s supposed to be later tonight or tomorrow. They’re working on routing power around the substation that was hit, but there’s a lot of downed power lines out there.”

Not surprisingly, when Xander opens the papers last night’s storm is front-page news in the New York papers. Grabbing the cell phone, he dials the number for Angel Investigations.

“Xander?”

“Hi guys, just calling to let you know I survived the storm intact, though a substation that supplies the neighborhood was hit by lightning and the neighborhood is still without power, including the hotel. They’ve been very good about taking care of the guests regardless, last night they came around with bottled water, blankets since it was turning colder, dry ice for the refrigerator, candles, and flashlight batteries. And today, they still brought me breakfast, even with having to carry it up ten flights of stairs and another case of water.”

“Have you talked to Peter yet?”

“He’s going to be my next call. Ray asked if I wanted to come over last night since they still had electricity, but the police had already asked that people not drive unless it was necessary. And soothing my scared butt didn’t qualify.” The others gathered around the phone can hear the grin in Xander’s voice, he might have been scared the night before but all his fears have vanished by the light of day.

True to his words, the second he ends the call to Angel Investigations, which is cut short by the phone giving the low battery warning, he picks up the hotel phone and dials the firehouse.

“We’re sorry, due to the storm Ghostbusters is closed for the day. Please leave your name, number, and a brief description of your problem at the beep and we’ll get back to you.” Xander hears when he calls the public number so he grins, hangs up, and dials the guys private line.

“Xander?”

“Hey Ray, I just got the message on your main line so I figured I might have better luck with this one. How’d you guys weather the storm?”

“Pretty good, how about you?”

“Sacked out on the couch because I figured it would be warmer than my bed. The power’s still off here, but the restaurant is open and they brought me more bottled water, breakfast, and the papers. With all the power outages, today isn’t going to be a good day for sightseeing, so I guess I’ll stay here and read for a while.”

“Xander, I can be over there in about ten minutes if you’d rather come over here for the day. You could get a shower, and Charlie’s still here so you, Charlie, and Peter could talk. Therese and Aggie’s store is closed because of the power outage, but I could call them, ask them to come over, and they could tell you stories about your mother.”

“Damn Ray, you really don’t play fair.” Xander says, rubbing a hand over his face. “I was holding out until you mention calling Therese and Aggie.” Xander sighs, knowing he’s beat. “My cell phone battery is nearly dead, I suppose I could charge it while I’m there.”

“I learned from the best, your brother.” Ray chuckles, “Now I take it that was a yes?”

“Yes, I’ll come over, but only for a couple of hours.” Xander wags a finger at the phone “Cause I don’t want to leave Samhein for too long.”

“Bring him with you.” Ray says dryly, grinning at Peter whose finally drug himself out of bed. “Aggie and Therese have brought their familiars with them to the firehouse and Slimer ignores them completely.”

“Ray, one small problem. Remember the hotel you dropped me off at yesterday?”

“Uh, yeah?” Ray asks, grinning as Egon waves a cup of coffee under Peter’s nose.

“Remember how tall it was?”

“Yeah, about ten stories tall.”

“I’m on the top floor,” Xander says dryly, “there’s no way I’m going to be able to juggle Samhain’s litter box, carrier, and my cane down ten flights of stairs.”

“Ohh, hadn’t thought about that.” Ray says, closing his eyes as the others turn to look at him in worry.

“Yeah, and I’m still trying to figure out how to get everything back to LA on a plane.”

“Heck, we can help you there. I’m sure the others won’t mind flying to LA for a quick spin, that would give us the chance to see the Sunnydale Hellmouth.” Egon looks interested. “I think Egon would like to get some more readings, and we can be there for you while you take care of the Rosenberg estate.” Egon nods enthusiastically, “That way you don’t have to pay extra for everything you’re bringing back to you from New York. You did say you had only brought a one-way ticket, since you weren’t sure how long you were staying in New York.”

“Yeah, now I just have to figure out how to get Samhein to England. I can’t remember how long domestic animals have to be quarantined.”

“Hah, Aggie and Therese take their cats all over the world with them and never have to worry about it. We can ask them later.”

“Okay, you’ve twisted my arm, you evil, evil man. But we’ll going to have to stop and get a litter box and food for him.”

“We’ve already got a litter box around here somewhere.” Ray says, looking over at Peter with a grin. “Your brother managed to get himself turned into a cat a couple months ago and Winston went out and brought him a litter box and some food.”

“Oh, now I’ve got to hear this story.” Xander and Charlie manage to say in unison. Ray grins at the phone and looks up as Winston returns to the kitchen with the half-bag of litter and box in his hands.

“Winston just found the litter box, and we have half a bag of litter left, so we just need to stop off for a bag of kitten food.”

“Okay nudge,” Xander grins, “give me about twenty minutes to get down the stairs and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

Xander puts the phone in the cradle, grabs the duffel bag he’d taken to Xavier Hawkin’s store and shoves a change of clothes, soap and shampoo, his cell phone and charger, and at the last second his camera before pulling on a jacket and slipping Samhein inside.

The kitten wiggles around getting comfortable as Xander throws the duffel bag over his shoulder, grabbing a bottle of water and the flashlight, before leaving the hotel room. He’d made sure to find the nearest exit when he’d arrived at the hotel and enters the stairwell, his footsteps and the thump of his cane echoing down the stairs.

An employee is passing the stairway and happens to hear the sound, opening the door and looking up to see a waving light coming around a corner. Xander hastens his steps at the additional light from the doorway and comes out into the lobby.

“Mr. Harris, can I help you?”

“Naahh, I’m fine,” Xander drops into a chair, putting his feet up on the footstool nearby. “A friend is coming over in a couple minutes so to pick me up so I can shower and charge my cell phone. Any news on when we might be getting the power back?”

“Still late tonight or early tomorrow, sir. I’m trying to get hotel rooms for the guests who wish to leave, but most of the hotels are already filled. I’m sure we can arrange for a room for you if you wish to stay elsewhere.”

“Naaahhh, I’m fine, I’d rather stay here. Besides, I don’t think that any of the other hotels allow pets.” Xander grins as Samhein pokes his head out of Xander’s jacket, meows at the other man, and crawls back into his coat as the door across the room opens and a bouncing Ray comes into view.

“Sir, what time are you coming back?”

“Probably about six, six-thirty?” Xander looks up at Ray and pulls himself to his feet as Ray grabs the duffle bag.

“I’ll arrange for a hot meal and more supplies brought up to your room around seven then.” The manager makes a note on paper in front of him and grins as raised voices can be heard from the board meeting in the other room.

* * *

“Everybody, shut up!!!” A voice thunders as its owner has finally had enough of the complaining, backstabbing, and finger pointing. “The damage has been done and now we have to deal with it. The need for a new generator has been brought up every board meeting for the past 5 years by the various heads of Maintenance. Danvers, you’re an asshole if you still want to complain that it’s not necessary, especially considering we’ve just spent five hundred dollars on an emergency call for a technician to come in, one that you picked out yourself by the way so don’t you goddamn dare say that it’s a conspiracy and we really don’t need a new generator, who said the same thing Sam and the others have already been telling us. The generator was brought secondhand ten years ago because you were too damn cheap to buy a new one, it was on it’s last legs then, and now it’s finally died. We need a new generator; gentlemen, and we need it now. All in favor of purchasing a new unit say Aye.”

A chorus of Ayes’ is heard as the vote goes around the room, except for an angry, tight-lipped Danvers who scowls at everybody.

“Motion for the board,” He angrily snarls when the vote is finished. “I make the motion that the entire maintenance crew be fired for incompetence. If they had been doing their jobs correctly, this never would have happened.”

“Overruled, the report from your own person states that it was only a matter of time before this happened, the unit was old and failing when we got it. Now sit down, shut the hell up, and grow up or else my next motion is going to be a vote to remove you from the board for incompetence and dereliction of duty.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“All in favor of removing Danvers from his position on the board and appointing a temporary board member until the next election, please raise your hands.”

Every hand but Danvers shoots into the air.

“Motion Carried, let it be recorded in the minutes of this emergency meeting that the need for a new generator has been voted on and approved, the unit to be ordered later today and delivered in three months. Also voted on and approved at this meeting is the removal of Jackson Danvers for incompetence and dereliction of duty for repeatedly vetoing the need for a new generator for the last five years. The seat held by Mr. Danvers is temporarily assumed by Samuel L. James, head of overnight Maintenance until the next general election.”

“I’ll get you Jameson, if it’s the last damn thing I do. I will get you, I promise. I’m going to go to the board of the Trust that owns the hotel and complain that you went over my head, are purchasing a generator that we wouldn’t need if the hotel’s Maintenance crew did their jobs and had me removed from the position I’ve held for nearly twenty years.”

“No need, they already know.” Jameson smirks, pulling a folder of papers from his briefcase. “I took the liberty of calling the trustees last night, faxing them copies of the minutes from every board meeting since the need for a new generator has been brought up, and they immediately got back to me with some orders.” Jameson waves the fax he received the night before, the bold red words ‘Order a new Generator and Remove that incompetent Bastard from the board’ plainly visible. Danvers gulps as the fax is handed over, his hands shaking as he reads the words on the page and knows he’s finally lost. “Now, who do you think they’ll believe, you or me? Especially when I send them a copy of the report from the technician you called in that says the same thing every maintenance head has been saying for the past five years.”

* * *
Ray grins as he pulls into Ecto‘s parking spot at the firehouse. Peter, Charlie, Aggie, and Therese are waiting by Janine’s empty desk and the two women immediately grab the bag of groceries they’d had Ray stop and pick up and head for the kitchen to make their famous garlic chicken breasts and stuffed cabbage leaves. Charlie and Peter immediately look Xander over, making sure he survived the storm last night before showing him to the first floor bathroom.

Xander leans against the closed door, listening to the footsteps heading up the stairs and grins at the sight of Samhein sitting on the edge of the sink, batting at water dripping from the faucet as he leans the cane against the shower stall, pulls off his clothes, and stands under the steaming hot water.

Xander turns the water off five minutes later, allowing himself to stand there dripping as a hand reaches through the curtain, holding out a towel. Chuckling, Xander wraps it around his waist and, leaning on the wall of the shower, carefully makes his way out into the bathroom. Standing on the bath mat, he dries off with the second towel Egon hands him, running a comb through his hair before dressing and following him into the kitchen.

Aggie looks up from the pot she’s stirring on the stove when Xander enters the room, scowling at the way the clothes hang on Xander’s thin frame.

“Dammit Jessica, didn’t you ever feed that boy?”

“Not from what Xander says,” Peter says softly, leaning over her. “According to Xander, if he wanted to eat, he had to buy his own food and cook it himself.”

Aggie turns to look at Peter in disbelief, her eyes turning hard as she realizes the normally ‘never take anything serious, that’s too much like work’ laid-back man is deadly serious. She growls deep in her throat. “According to Giles, Xander’s gained about ten pounds since he moved in with him, but he’s still too damn skinny for my peace of mind.”

“Excuse me, Egon,” Xander reaches for the bag Egon had picked up as a purring Samhein allows Charlie to scratch behind his ears. “You’re just like Annie’s old cat, ain’t ya? Once you like somebody you’ll just sit there and purr, but if you don’t like them, they’d better watch out.”

“Annie told you about some of his stunts?” Therese looks over at Charlie, smirking as Samhein rubs against his hand. Xander grins at Samhein, walking over to where Charlie’s standing and plugs in his cell phone to charge.

“Actually I was there for one of them. Did Annie ever tell you about the time he got into the powdered sugar when the preacher was over?” Therese and Aggie start to howl. “Yup, she told you.”

“Wanna tell us the story?” Peter asks.

“Okay, it was about, oh god nearly 22 years ago?” Charlie blinks as he realizes how much time has passed. “Annie and I were old friends, in fact Petey she was one of your mother’s bridesmaids at our wedding.” Peter and Xander look at Charlie in disbelief, this was something they hadn’t expected to hear. “I’m sorry about how I reacted when I first met you Xander, I truly didn’t know who you were talking about for a minute. Annie always used her Mother’s maiden name, she once said she didn’t use her father’s name for her own protection, it seems he’s a, what did Annie call him, A man who puts the mad in mad scientist, always out to rule the world?” Charlie looks over at Aggie who nods enthusiastically.

“Yeah, that’s the polite version of what she usually said.” Aggie snorts, “Annie usually came off as quite genteel, but she had a wicked vocabulary of cuss words she used on occasion. Fucking crackpot is how she usually referred to him.”

“Okay, there was a preacher who kept coming around, trying to get Annie to come to his church to ‘save her soul from damnation’ because she hung around with man-hating Witches.”

“Oh goddess, I hadn’t thought of that putz in years. He hated us because of our sexual orientation, let alone the fact we’re Wicca. Wonder whatever happened to him?”

“Bastard got in trouble with the IRS and the police. Seems he left the church and started up a traveling tent revival, didn’t report all his money to the IRS and the police raided him for engaging in sex with a minor.”

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole.” Therese says, grinning in satisfaction.

“Anyway,” Charlie says, moving slightly to allow Ray to get behind him and grab plates to set the table. “He came over one day, I happened to be there doing some small repairs for her,”

“That reminds me guys, you need to fix the sink in the downstairs bathroom. It was dripping earlier.”

“Yeah,” Winston says, “I brought a new washer for it last week because I saw that. I’ll fix it after lunch.”

“Anyway, I was in the dining room moving furniture when I heard him come in and listened to the bastard try to convince Annie it was in her best interest to join his church. I hated the oily bastard on sight, you should have seen how he reacted when I entered the room, wrapping an arm around Annie’s shoulder and said “Sorry to interrupt darling, but I’m nearly done prepping the dining room for paint and you wanted me to let you know before I started taping stuff off.’ He turned white as a sheet,” Charlie snickers, “Of course, it didn’t hurt that I was a good foot taller and 50 pounds heavier than him, and he turned even whiter if that’s possible when I introduced myself as her fiancée.” Aggie and Therese snicker.

“He hurriedly excused himself, suddenly remembering a urgent call he had to return, or was it a member of his flock that was in a coma in the hospital he had to give last rites to, or some such nonsense and got up to leave. I escorted him out and just as he started to go down the stairs, here comes a pure white cat out of nowhere and runs between his legs, tripping him. Annie’s house was on the top of a hill, and had this huge set of very steep stairs in front, I’d says nearly two hundred and fifty because I was bored and counted them one day.”

Aggie and Therese grin. “Idiot didn’t know to come up the driveway from the back street, that’s the way everybody else came in. Nobody used the front door, because of all those steps.”

“Anyway, he didn’t stop rolling until he reached the fence at the bottom of the hill. Luckily for him the fence was there, otherwise he might have rolled right into traffic. I happen to look over, and there’s the cat sitting by the fence, and I swear to god, he was smirking.”

“Knowing Annie’s cat,” Aggie says, “he probably was.”

“Anyway, he looks up at me, I’m trying hard not to laugh and he sees the cat sitting by the fence. Now, he knows Annie had a black cat, because that was one of his complaints, that the two of you had brainwashed her into getting a black cat, because all witches have to have a black cat, and knew that it wasn’t her cat. He made his excuses, limped off, and I turn to go back in when the cat runs past me into the house. I look down, there’s a white streak on my pant leg where the cat had brushed against me, and follow him into the kitchen. There on the floor are the remains of a bag of powdered sugar, scattered all over the floor. It looks like that cat had managed to open a cupboard, pull the bag out, toss it onto the floor, rip the bag open with his claws, and roll in it. Annie’s laughing hysterically as she towels him off, I grin as I sweep up the sugar, never had a bag of it been put to better use, and he never came around to harass Annie again.”

“God, I hate people like that.” Ray says, “There was a traveling Tent Preacher who used to come around my foster parents farm. They thought he could walk on water, at least until he took off one day with the revival money and the Catholic church’s married organist. Then they didn’t have one good thing to say about him.”

“Real men of the cloth who are doing God’s work don’t try to shove their religions down your throat, or tell you you’re going to hell because you’re different.” Xander agrees, “I’ve only met a couple of them who don’t try to convert you the second they meet you. One of them, he was scheduled to speak at our graduation and I thank god daily that he got sick earlier that day and had to cancel, came to visit me repeatedly while I was in the hospital and he said ‘Boy, God doesn’t care who you worship, as long as you worship somebody and are happy. Men are the ones who wrote the bible, not him, and it’s men who act as his voice in this crazy world. Unfortunately, there’s always a few bad apples in the bunch, but that’s true in everything, why should religion be any different?’ ”

“Now that is truly a wise man.” Egon says, watching as Aggie puts the food in the middle of the table. “Aggie, would you care to give the blessing?”

“Thank you Lady Goddess, for delivering us safely from the storm last night and allowing us to gather here today for food and companionship. Thank you, Lady Goddess, for delivering our dear friend Anna’s son back to us so that he and his family might bond. And we thank you Lady Goddess, for this bounty of food that we are about to eat. By your blessings.”

“Oh Egon,” Xander says, looking over at his bag midway through the mail. “Didn’t you say that you had a darkroom here in the firehouse?”

“Yes, it’s easier to develop film here, commercial labs might damage it or destroy evidence of what we had photographed, thinking it was a glitch in the film. Why?”

“I brought my camera with me, and I have some film taken while we were in Colorado. I hadn’t had a chance to have it developed yet . . .”

“Certainly Xander, I’ll do that after lunch. I was wondering if our cameras had managed to pick up anything in Four Corners, but hadn’t had the chance to finish the roll of film in the camera or develop the exposed rolls.”

“Yeah, same here. I’ve been busy with the estate. I just put a new roll of film in the camera before I flew into New York, and all the exposed film is in the case. Some of it, the last couple rolls, are pictures taken of the house and the hidden spaces my aunt and uncle had built, and a couple rooms that felt off to me but we couldn’t find anything we could put our finger on and say ‘yeah, that’s what’s wrong here.’ Maybe some fresh people looking at it will see something we missed?”

Xander insists on taking his turn scraping the lunch dishes and loading the dishwasher before following Peter, Winston, and Egon down into the basement. Peter grimaces at the load of laundry confronting him, but begins sorting the loads and throwing them into the machine while Egon and Winston take the exposed film into the darkroom.

“Xander, stay here by the door,” Winston says, leading him to a spot and shutting the door, dropping the room into total darkness. “Once we get this first step taken care of, we’ll turn the red light on and you can see what we’re doing. It will only take a couple minutes”

True to his words, a red light is flicked on before Xander can count to two hundred. Xander watches, fascinated, as Egon and Winston, without any wasted words proceed to develop the film. Pictures begin to form on the paper in front of them and Xander squints to make out forms.

“It’s going to be a couple more hours until they’re ready, Xander. Why don’t you go visit with Aggie, Therese, and your father?”

“It won’t hurt them if I open the door and leave?”

“Nope,” Winston says grinning, “the next stop is letting these soak for about ten minutes so I’m going to run upstairs, use the little boys room, and replace that washer while I’m thinking about it.”

Xander follows Winston up the stairs, finding Aggie, Therese, and Charlie sitting in the tv room talking.

“Aggie, Therese, I have a question for you. You know how I can get Samhein through customs when I go back to London without him having to stay in quarantine?” Xander drops into a chair with a sigh.

“Not a problem,” Aggie says with a smirk, “I talked it over with Ethan and Giles yesterday. When you get ready to go, call for Jasper and he can pick Samhein up and take him to England. Since they travel outside time, it won’t be more than a second for him. If there wasn’t a record of you entering the states, he could take you back too, that way you won’t have to be on a plane for so long. But they might get a little suspicious if you suddenly appear back in England, and there’s no trace of how you got there.”

“Well damn, that will make it easier to come visit the guys.”

“Yeah, as long as you remember the time difference.” Therese smirks, “Egon and Peter might get upset if you wake them up showing up here because it’s eight in the morning there and three a.m. here.”

“I’m already halfway used to the time change between LA and New York, so that shouldn’t be too difficult to remember. But maybe I’ll get a couple extra clocks and set them for LA and New York time just in case.”

A familiar ringing has him levering himself to his feet, but Winston is already at the door to the tv room, Xander’s phone in his hand. Xander grins as he sees a familiar number in the caller id screen.

“Hey Derek, I was just thinking about you earlier.”

Therese turns to look at him, realizing who must be on the other end.

“Hello Xander, I was calling to let you know that I’m going to be in New York on business next week. I was hoping I could take you, your brother, and his business partners to dinner one night to talk over a couple of things.”

“Yeah, if the guys aren’t busy, let me ask. Hey Winston, you guys got any plans for next week? Derek’s going to be in town and wants to take us out to dinner.”

“Let me talk to Egon, there’s supposed to be a meeting of something or other he plans on attending.”

“I heard,” Derek says, as Xander begins to repeat what Winston had said, “We’re attending the same convention. Also Xander,” Derek takes a deep breath as Ethan and Giles give him reassuring looks. “Would you happen to know where Therese is?”

“Yeah, she’s sitting right here,” Xander says, catching Therese’s eye. She gives him a what’s going on look and he shrugs helplessly. “Her, Aggie, and Charlie are telling me stories about my mother.”

“Can you ask her if I can talk to her please? I’ve been going through some of my father’s things that were in storage since his death, and I found a letter he had started writing to her and Ethan’s mother before he was killed.”

“Let me ask her.” Xander says, putting the phone down. “Therese, Derek would like to talk to you. He said he’s been going through his father’s stuff that has been in storage since he was killed and there was a letter to your mother he had started to write.”

“Winston was killed? When?” Therese asks astonished, “Somebody from the Legacy keeps coming around the store, demanding that I turn over the artifact Winston was supposed to have found. Damn bastard shows up every three months like clockwork and I always feel like the store needs to be fumigated when he finally leaves.”

“Let’s see,” Xander says, closing his eyes as he remembers the story Nick had told him one night when he’d asked about the Legacy House they worked in, “Nick says Derek was around twelve or thirteen when his father was killed by a demon, and he’s in his early forties now, so I’d say late ’67 or early ’68?”

“Damn, that means he was killed just around the time that Mom found out she was pregnant.” Therese says, reaching for the phone Xander’s silently holding out. “Hello, Derek?”

* * *

“Hello, Therese.” Derek says calmly as Ethan paces back and forth in the Hyperion’s lobby, waiting for the explosion when his brother and sister finally meet. Giles comes into the room, grabbing Ethan on his latest trip around the room and pushes him into a chair. “Ethan, relax, once everything is straightened out I have the feeling Derek and Therese are going to be thick as thieves.”

“Damn it, why didn’t I think to say something earlier? I knew he was dead, Derek told me years ago when we first met. Why didn’t I think to tell Therese? Why?”

“Because you’re only human, love. The chaos has been clouding your judgment for a while now, and now that your head is clear you’re finally able to get everything taken care of that’s been needing to be done for years.”

“Therese,” Derek says, “Can you describe the man that’s been showing up at your store, claiming to work for the Legacy and demanding you turn over an artifact father supposedly found?” He takes notes as Therese describes the man that keeps coming around the store, translating his notes into an e-mail that he sends to all the Legacy Houses.

“Therese, I don’t recognize him from your description, when do you expect him to visit your store again?” Derek raises an eyebrow at her response, “Perfect, I think that William, Nick, and I will make the perfect welcoming committee.”

* * *

Xander takes the phone back and grins at Giles admonishment to at least try to stay out of trouble before shutting it off and putting it back in his duffel bag. Samhain, curled up in Aggie’s lap gives his new companion a knowing smirk.

“Don’t you start in kitty-cat,” Xander rolls his eyes as Egon comes into the room, sheets of photographic proofs in his arms. He pins them to the corkboard covering one wall and motions for Peter, Xander, Winston, and Ray to gather around.

“These are pictures Xander took in Four Corners,” Egon explains, “Look at this one, at first I thought it might be a fault in the film, but none of the others on the roll seem to have been affected.” Egon points at a faint haze over the town. “I’m wondering if the camera wasn’t picking up some of the Hellmouth emanations.” Ray examines the photo in interest. “I’d be interested in seeing if photos taken in Sunnydale might show the same hazy effect.”

“Not that I can remember,” Xander says, closing his eyes as he remembers pictures taken in Sunnydale. “Of course, we didn’t take any pictures right over the Hellmouth so that might make a difference.”

“And any pictures that might have shown something were most probably ‘fixed’ by the developers.” Egon says, “I’ll have to bring a camera along with us, and see what happens.”

“Don’t you mean see what develops, ‘Gon?” Peter and Xander snicker as Egon rolls his eyes in mock exasperation. “Children.” He murmurs under his breath. “Spare me your futile attempts at humor, Peter.” The tone in Egon’s voice lets everybody know he’s not really upset.

“Egon, what’s that?” Xander points to a blur in the background of one of the pictures.

“I’m not sure, Xander. Raymond, will you please hand me the magnifying glass from the end table?”

Ray reaches over and pulls open the table beside him, reaching in to pull out a large magnifying glass that he lobs overhand to Winston who holds it over Egon’s shoulder.

“Thank you Winston,” he says absently, taking the magnifying glass and holding it over the picture. “I can’t quite make it out, I’ll have to go and enlarge the picture.”

“Let me see a minute, Egon.” Xander says, taking the magnifying glass as he opens himself to the Hellmouth. Everybody but the four Ghostbusters jump in astonishment as his eyes change colors and a deep voice chuckles.

“It’s a picture of Buck walking through the back wall of the jail,” He says in amusement, “judging from the smirk on his face, he was ambushing JD.”

“Why would Buck be ambushing JD?” Egon asks the Hellmouth, taking back the offered Magnifying glass. Looking at the picture again, he can barely make out the details.

The Hellmouth crosses Xander’s arms over his chest, smirking at Peter and Egon with a raised eyebrow. Winston is the first one to get it and begins chuckling, followed by Peter.

“I don’t get it.” Ray asks as the others demand to know what the hell is going on.

“Ray,” Xander says, “Buck was ambushing JD for the same reason Peter screws around with Egon’s experiments.” Ray thinks a minute and grins, finally realizing what the others had been talking about.

“Okay, can somebody please explain what the hell just happened here?” Charlie asks.

Xander looks at the Ghostbusters and shrugs, “I guess I’m the best one to tell the story. I’m a Medium, except that we didn’t know it growing up. Growing up on the Hellmouth without any shields, I become a demon magnet. If they weren’t trying to kill me, they wanted to have sex with me, then kill me. If something screwy was going to happen, nine times out of ten it happened to me. A couple of examples are the Incan Mummy who dated boys and drained them of their life energy. I was the next course in her meal plan before the others finished her off. Then there was Mrs. French, the science teacher. She turned out to be a giant preying Mantis who wanted to mate with me to make little preying mantises, then kill me so the babies would have food when they hatched.” Charlie, Therese, and Aggie shudder at the horror stories, and Xander’s matter of fact tone.

“Is that all?”

“Oh hell no, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Xander says, “Let’s see, I’ve been possessed twice, once during one of Ethan’s spells and once by a hyena spirit, the swim coach of the team wanted an edge so he exposed everybody to chemicals in the steam room and made us eat special meals of what turned out to be mermaid and we all turned into Creature from the Black Lagoon wannabes, I had a love spell turn bad and had every woman in town running after me, everybody except the woman I was really interested in, and of course there was high school graduation, during which our Mayor planned an Ascension, turned into a hundred foot snake demon, and we ended up blowing up the school to kill him.” Charlie blinks in astonishment, but Terry and Aggie, who had already heard part of the story from the others earlier nod.

“Okay, what’s the Hellmouth?” Charlie asks, pinching his nose as he wonders again just what sort of life his younger son had led.

“Literally what it sounds like, a spot where the shields between Earth and the dimension we know as Hell are the thinnest. Lots of demons and bad guys want to open the Hellmouth, or control it.”

“Think of it like this, Charlie.” Egon says as he sees Charlie vainly trying to wrap his mind around the concept. Egon grabs a piece of chalk and sketches on the wall, glad once again that he had gotten his way and they’d sprayed the walls with chalkboard paint. “Think of a dam holding back water,” He quickly sketches a lake with a simple dam holding back the water from the small town he sketches next. “The dam is the only thing keeping the water and land separate. In this case the dam is the veil between the dimensions, the water is Hell, or one of the many dimensions we think of as hell, and the land is our world.”

“Okay, I see what you mean.” Charlie says, “And the Hellmouth?”

Egon erases the dam he’d drawn, replacing it with a series of sandbags. “In some places the veil is thin, think of all the scenes on the news you’ve seen where floods have washed levees away and people are frantically filling sandbags to keep the water out of their homes?” Charlie nods. “That spot where the Dam is in danger of washing away would be the Hellmouth. Since the barrier is so thin, energy is continually flowing out in small amounts, like water trickling between the sandbags. If somebody were to open the Hellmouth, it would be the magical equivalent to a major flood. Except that it wouldn’t be water, rather demons and other magical beings.”

“Why would anybody want to do that?” Charlie asks.

“A couple of reasons, usually whoever wants to do it wants the power or a demon wants to return Earth to ‘the good old days’ when Demons ruled the earth.” Xander says, “It’s like a venus fly trap, the Hellmouth always sends out energy luring demons, vampires, and bad guys to the Hellmouth to either destroy them or in the case of Sunnydale, have the Slayer deal with them.”

“Damn,” Charlie says, rubbing a hand over his head. “And you grew up near one of those?”

“Yeah, though I didn’t know Sunnydale was the Hellmouth until a couple years ago when Buffy moved to town.”

“Buffy?”

“One of my friends who died during Graduation. She was the Slayer, the Chosen one, the one who is supposed to destroy vampires, demons, and fight the forces of evil, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.” Xander waggles his hand in the air. “Slayers are blessed with enhanced strength, speed, healing, and the ability to sense vampires and demons. Though I think it must have been busted in Buffy’s case, why else did it take her so long to twig to the fact that Deadboy was a vamp.”

“Huh?”

“Okay, the first day Buffy was in school after being expelled from her old one for burning down the gym, which was filled with vampires, a dead body drained of blood was found in one of the lockers. Buffy had lost her old watcher to a vampire and had seen moving to Sunnydale as starting a new life, unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way she had expected.”

“Watcher?” Charlie asks plaintively.

“The Council of Watchers is a group of assholes in England who control the Slayer. Every slayer has an field agent who controls and trains her, researches demons she might have to battle, and in the worse case scenario, if the Slayer is badly hurt by a demon or vamp she’s facing, in the event she’s not killed outright, a Watcher is supposed to kill his charge so a new Slayer is called if he feels that it would take her too long to heal from her wounds.” Aggie says bitterly. Charlie looks at her in astonishment and she continues, “See Charlie, there can be only one Slayer at a time, or there was until Xander’s friend Buffy. The Slayer was created as a weapon, and when a Slayer is called they receive what’s called the Slayer Spirit, which activates their potential powers. When a Slayer dies, the Slayer Spirit moves to the next girl so there’s always an active Slayer. The Council keeps an eye on most of the girls destined to be Slayers, often taking the girls in and raising her themselves so they are trained for their job from the moment they could walk.”

“Yeah, Buffy and Faith are different in that they weren’t raised by the Council, they’d had lives before they were Called and were coming into everything blind.” Xander interjects. “When the Slayer before Buffy was killed, Buffy was Called. But since Buffy wasn’t under the Council’s thumb, they had to track her down. Her first Watcher was a man named Merrick, who was killed by a vampire named Lothos. When Buffy moved to Sunnydale, the Council sent her new Watcher ahead of her, Rupert Giles. But Giles wasn’t one of the Council’s usual yes men and treated Buffy like a daughter, not a tool.”

“How does the Council know what girls are meant to be Slayers?”

“The only outward sign is every potential Slayer has a mole on her right shoulder. Most of the girls they train from birth are from families who know what that means and turn the child over to the Council. Kendra, the Slayer who was called when Buffy died the first time, was one of those girls.”

“When Buffy died the first time?”

“Long story, I’ll get to it in a bit. Anyway, Buffy went to the Library for something and Giles introduced himself to her as her new Watcher. She didn’t want to continue to be the Slayer, but really didn’t have a choice in the matter. Wills, Jesse, and I had already met her and we were at the Bronze, a local teen hangout, when Jesse and Wills were captured. Buffy rescued them, and we found out that she was the Slayer, but it was too late in Jesse’s case. We didn’t know it at the time, but Jesse had already been turned.”

“Jesse? Turned?”

“Jesse was my best friend.” Xander says sadly, “Wills, Jesse, and I were the three Musketeers.” Peter looks at his younger brother, wishing he could do something about the pain in his voice. “Turning is what happens when a vampire makes his victim a vampire too. The victim is drained and at the last moment of life, the vampire will feed the victim some of his blood. At that moment, the soul departs and a demon inhabits the body.”

“So the popular take in novels where if a vampire feeds from a victim, the victim will rise as a vampire three days after death?”

“May or may not be pure bullshit.” Xander snorts, “Not all the victims become vampires themselves, but it does take some time. Buffy usually patrolled the graveyard early in her patrols, waiting for the new vampires to emerge from their graves so she could stake them. I’ve only dealt with the ‘soulless’ vampires’, where the demons control the body, though Giles has come across legends that mention other breeds of vampires that demons and have abilities our vamps don’t have.”

“What happened to Jesse?” Charlie asks, reaching over and placing a hand on Xander’s shoulder as Samhein jumps in his lap and begins purring loudly.

“The next night Jesse led Wills and I into a trap. Buffy saved us, but in the fight Jesse was dusted.”

“Dusted?”

“There’s two ways that can kill a vampire: a stake through the heart and decapitation.” Xander says, “When a vamp dies, the body turns to dust since the demon is the only thing holding the body together. I know that wasn’t the real Jesse, that was just a vampire inhabiting his body and my friend was already dead, but it still hurts. After we got away and stopped the Harvest,”

“Harvest?”

“Big bad vampire called the Master was trying to take control of the town.” Xander says, “after we stopped him, Giles and Buffy explained what had happened and Wills and I decided to help them. We had a few adventures our sophomore year, including the mother of one of our classmates being a witch and stealing her daughter’s body to regain her youth, a girl who felt she was invisible and actually became invisible, the aforementioned Mummy girl and preying mantis lady, and Buffy falling for a guy who turned out to be a 200 year old vampire. . .”

“Is that all?”

“Nope, my sophomore year was also the first time I was possessed.” Xander says, grinning at the shocked looks on the faces of everybody but the Ghostbusters who’d heard the story before. “It was during a field trip to a local zoo. We didn’t know it at the time but one of the zoo attendants had performed a magic rite in the hyena cage the night before and didn’t clean up after himself too well. The lingering hyena spirits possessed five of us. I ended up gorging on the school mascot, and being a total jackass around Buffy trying to make a move on her. She slapped me stupid and locked me in the book cage at the library while she went to hunt for the others. Unfortunately, the others didn’t stop at the school mascot, they ended up attacking the school principal in his office. The police who responded said it looked like he’d been torn apart by a pack of wild animals.”

“Oh Xander. . .” Aggie says, reaching over and running a hand over his hair. “What happened?”

“Giles was able to release us from the hyena spirits, but like Peter can tell you, being possessed leaves lingering effects, one of which is you remember everything that goes on. I lied to Buffy and Willow, telling them that I didn’t remember a thing but Giles cornered me later that day and told me that you remember everything that happens while you were possessed.”

Peter nods, remembering his own possessions and the nightmares that haunted him afterwards. “And in my case, it’s even worse in the fact that while I was freed, the Hyena still exists up here,” Xander taps his head, “And might break free of the spell Giles put on me to contain her.”

“That is most unusual, once a person has been released from possession, the entity that had possessed them usually doesn’t remain.” Egon says, grabbing a PKE meter, adjusting it, and running it over Xander. “Fascinating, I can see four distinct traces in your brainwaves. Two are strong presences; I would assume yours and our friend, while two are barely being picked up. I would imagine the Hyena is one of them, since you claim she’s still there in your mind, but who or what is the second?”

“That would be from Halloween, and . . .” Xander looks at Therese, “Ethan is to blame for that one. He cast a spell that made us become our Halloween costumes. I had got a set of fatigues from his shop, so I became a soldier, Buffy had dressed up as a lady, and turned into a gibbering idiot who was scared of her own shadow, and Willow dressed up as a ghost. Giles figured out what was going on and broke the spell, but I was left with the skills and trace memories of the guy who owned the fatigues.”

“Fascinating,” Egon breathes, “I’ve never heard of somebody keeping abilities or memories from a possession.”

“Wesley, Ethan, Derek, Giles and I talked about it for a couple hours one night. We think it might be something peculiar to me that causes it to happen because it didn’t happen to Buffy, Willow, or any of the other kids who were possessed by their costumes. The kids who were possessed by the other Hyenas and the Swim Team left town afterwards, so we couldn’t watch them and see if they showed any signs of lingering abilities from the possession.”

“Wait a second, Xander.” Ray says, a confused look on his face. “You said that the other boys who were possessed attacked and . . . ate the school principal in his office?” Xander nods. “But you also said your school principal was eaten and killed by the Mayor who had turned into a hundred foot tall snake demon during graduation.”

“Different principals.” Xander says, “Sunnydale High School is currently on it’s third principal in five years. Principal Flutey was the one killed by the other possessed boys, it was his vice-principal Snyder who was killed during graduation. You know the old saying absolute power corrupts absolutely?” Ray nods, “Well, that was the Troll to a Tee. He hated the students, but since Mr. Flutey was the principal his martinet tendencies were turned to the school board and school employees. When he became Principal, he finally had the power he wanted over everybody.”

“Peck!” the four Ghostbusters say in unison.

“Yeah, from what you told me about the asshole, he and Snyder probably would have gotten along like gangbusters.”

“You said that Buffy died and Kendra was called?” Charlie asks.

“Yeah, that happened our sophomore year. There was a prophecy that only Buffy could destroy him. They fought and she killed him, but drowned during the battle. Deadboy and I were able to pull her out of the water and I performed CPR, reviving her. We didn’t know it at the time, but the few minutes she was dead was enough to cause the Slayer spirit to leave and a new Slayer was called.”

“Kendra?”

“Right, we didn’t know a new Slayer had been called, not until somebody showed up in Sunnydale fighting vamps. Kendra and Buffy fought briefly, each thinking the other one was lying when they claimed she was the Slayer, until we were able to get the story out of her. Kendra left town afterwards, knowing the Hellmouth was protected. She died about a year later, killed by a vamp.”

“Was the rest of your high school years quieter?”

“Oh, Hell no.” Xander drawls out. “Our junior year Buffy and Angel, or Deadboy as I like to call him, did the Ugly and, though we didn’t know it, that was enough to break the Curse on his soul and the big, bad Angelus returned.”

“Deadboy? Angel? Angelus?” Charlie asks plaintively.

“Okay, it all started about 200 years ago when a vampire named Darla turned a young man who became known as Angelus, because he supposedly had the face of an angel. He in turn made a vampire named Drusilla who made a vampire who became known as William the Bloody. Together, they became known as the Scourge of Europe.” Aggie nods, remembering everything she’s read about the Scourge of Europe. “Unfortunately for Angelus, he killed the favorite daughter of a Gypsy clan, the same clan that Jenny, the techno-Pagan I told you about yesterday,” Xander says to Aggie and Therese, “who got revenge by cursing him with a soul. Supposedly the Soul would remember everything the demon had done, stopping the vampire from hurting another person. So Angelus became Angel, Vampire with a soul and brooding machine. But we didn’t know it at the time, there was a clause in the curse that if he ever had a moment of happiness, the soul would leave and the demon would be free again.”

“And this happened when Buffy and Angel had sex?”

“Yup, so Deadboy started terrorizing Buffy and ended up killing Jenny, but not before Jenny found a copy of the curse. Willow ended up giving Angel back the Soul, but Buffy didn’t know it at the time she sent him to Hell. When Buffy found out that it was Angel and not Angelus she’d sent to Hell, she ran away. Angel ended up spending about a hundred years in Hell, though only a couple months passed here, before somehow showing back up in Sunnydale. Angel is currently working for the powers that be to atone for what his demon did and to regain his humanity.”

“What happened to the others?”

“They went their separate ways when Angelus vanished. Drusilla and Spike, as he’s also known. . .”

“Wait a second, your friend Spike who drove you to Sunnydale?” Ray asks.

“Yeah, he showed up in Sunnydale when he found out Angel was there early in our junior year, before Angel lost his soul. He brought Drusilla with him, but she’d been attacked by a mob in Prague and is more than a little nuts because of it now. Angel ended up dusting Darla during a fight while we were in school. Anyway, after graduation Angel and Spike moved to LA to start the detective agency, while Drusilla followed the stars. Last we heard from the various groups tracking her, she was in Africa talking to the local witch doctors.”

“Do I even want to ask if your Senior year was any less insane?” Charlie asks dryly.

“Nope, that’s when Faith moved to town and we found out what the Mayor had planned.”

“Faith?”

“The Slayer who was called after Kendra was killed. When she moved to Sunnydale, the Council sent a watcher for her who went rogue and attacked Giles.”

“Who?” Aggie asks, remembering the various watchers she’s met over the years.

“Gwendolyn Post.”

“Who the hell assigned her to an active Slayer?” Aggie yelps, “That woman is as nutty as my great aunt Yetta’s best fruitcake.”

“Travers.” Xander says sourly. “Once she went nuts, he turned around fired Giles and sent Wesley to the Hellmouth to take over as Buffy and Faith’s watcher. Personally, I wonder, and I’ve talked this over with Spike and Angel and they agree with me, if Post didn’t have orders to try to dispose of Giles permanently so the Council could swoop in and take control of the girls.”

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised,” Aggie snorts, “Travers has hated Giles as long as I’ve known him.”

“What the hell is the matter with him?” Xander asks, “I know the Council hates Giles because of the fact he treated Buffy and Faith as real people and not disposable tools, but I swear Travers is taking it personally.”

“Same thing with your principal. Absolutely power corrupts absolutely. Unlike most of the morons on the council, Giles won’t put up with Travers’ bullshit. Travers hates him for that, and the fact that Giles won’t allow himself to be pushed into something he’s not.”

Xander nods, “Makes sense.”

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the hotel a car pulls up and parks in front of the door. The doorman gives them a disgusted look as they enter the hotel and the younger man rolls his eyes.

“Mac, are you sure that this is the right address? What the hell would a kid being doing in a place like this?”

“May I help you gentlemen?” the clerk behind the counter asks. Both men turn and flash their badges at her. “My name is Mac Taylor, this is my associate Danny Messer. We have a tip that a suspect in an armed robbery has been seen hanging around the hotel. Have you seen a young man about 5’11” dark hair and eyes, wearing torn jeans, a white t-shirt, and sneakers? Age would be mid to late teens.”

“No, and anybody fitting that description would be run off by the doorman.”

“Yeah, I saw the look the doorman gave us.” Danny says, “You sure you don’t have anybody registered here that fits the general description.”

“We cater to executives traveling on business, Mr. Messer.” The woman behind the counter says, “We generally don’t get guests with families. The only guest who even casually fits that description would be Mr. Harris, and he’s not expected back until six to six thirty. ”

“You got a full name for this Mr. Harris. Where is he from?” Danny grabs his notebook.

“His full name is Alexander Harris, and he flew in from Los Angeles Monday morning.” The clerk behind the counter says, “He’s here on business.”

“You have a photo of him you can call up on the computer?” Mac asks, looking at the security cameras.

“Unfortunately no, Gentlemen. We’ve been without power since the storm last night.” Another voice says from behind them. “May I ask what your business is with Mr. Harris?”

Mac turns around and looks at the other man. The other man has a harried look on his face, probably from dealing with the power outage, and quickly explains the situation.

“Gentlemen, I doubt that Mr. Harris is the young man you’re looking for, but I’ll call you when he returns to the hotel so you can see for yourself.” The manager says, taking the business card Mac hands him and putting it on the desk. “I’ll ask you to see yourself out.”

“Damn Mac, that was the most genteel Bum’s rush I’ve ever gotten.” Danny mutters under his breath as they get into the car.

“Places like that have a reputation to uphold, Danny. And having a guest be wanted by the police definitely isn’t the reputation they’re looking for.”

* * *

A couple hours later Ecto one is filled with the Ghostbusters and Charlie as they take Xander back to his hotel. Xander flips on the flashlight after waving the others off and heads up the stairs, grimacing as the stairs he walked down this morning seem to have multiplied to three times their original number in the hours he was gone.

Xander sighs in relief as he opens the door, unbuttoning his jacket allowing Samhein to leap onto the couch and from there onto the floor and his litter box. Hanging his jacket up, he bends over to pick up a piece of paper that had been shoved under the door and briefly looks it over, seeing that the electricity should be back on by tomorrow morning at the latest. Xander grins and places it on the table before walking over to the window, opening the drapes and window to brighten the room up and air it out before he grabs the matches, lights the burner on the stove, and grabs a wok from the kitchen cabinet

Sliced mushrooms, peppers, assorted veggies, and sliced chicken breasts are soon cooking in the wok as a knock is heard at the door. Xander wipes his hands on the kitchen towel tucked in his belt and walks to the door, finding the assistant manager on duty accompanied by two men he’s never seen before. Xander grins as he sees the white takeout box held in the assistant managers hands.

“Doesn’t the manager have anything better to do than run up ten flights of stairs to deliver a meal?” He asks as he takes the box, walking back to turn off the fire under the wok.

“Oh definitely, Mr. Harris, especially considering everything that has happened since the storm, but these gentlemen wanted to talk to you.”

Xander looks at the two men, who hold out badges.

“How can I help the New York Police Department?” He asks as he drops onto the couch, waving the others to chairs as Samhein exits the bathroom and leaps onto the couch beside him.

“Mr. Harris, My name is Mac Taylor, my associate is Danny Messer. Can you tell us where you were earlier today?”

“Yeah, I was at Ghostbusters Headquarters from around ten-thirty to a half-hour ago.” Xander says, grinning. “I went over to shower, recharge my cell phone, and harass my older brother, father, and friends.”

“You don’t live in New York, do you?” Mac asks, writing in his notebook.

“No, I currently live outside of London, I’ve only been back in the States a couple months to handle my adoptive parents estate. I’ll probably be going back to London in a few weeks.”

“Mr. Harris, do you have anything to prove when you arrived in town?”

Xander blinks but gets to his feet, limps over to the desk where his briefcase sits and returns with the stub from his plane ticket, which he hands to Mac. Mac takes it, makes a note of the airline, flight, and time and hands it back.

“Mr. Harris, is there a reason why you only purchased a one way ticket from Los Angeles to New York?”

“I just found out less than a month ago that I was adopted, and that my older half-brother lives in the city. Since I had planned on doing some sightseeing, time allowed, and get to know my brother, I wasn’t sure when I would be heading back to LA. So, I just purchased a one-way ticket.”

Mac nods and makes another note in the notebook. It looks like the anonymous tip had been a complete bust. The young man he’s speaking with hadn’t been in town at the time of the first robbery, he has a tentative alibi for today’s robbery, and the cane, limp, and white hair doesn’t fit the description of the kid who had shot the storekeeper. He’ll have to do a background check on him when he gets back to the station, but it looks like he can cross this suspect off the list.

Mac and Danny pause outside the hotel room door as the assistant manager talks briefly to Xander, probably apologizing for disturbing him.

“Mac, how the hell can a kid that age afford a hotel room like this? A room like that’s easily got to run two, three hundred a night, not to mention have the assistant manager on duty personally escorted us up and stayed in the hotel room instead of just sending us up or calling the room to let him know he had visitors.”

“Simple gentlemen, Mr. Harris, or rather the trust that’s handling his mother’s estate, owns the hotel.”

Danny blinks at the smug tone in the assistant manager’s voice, as he hands a card to Mac. “This is the name of the law firm handling the trust, I strongly suggest if you have any questions about Mr. Harris please contact them. If you’ll follow me, gentlemen?”

Danny and Mac get into the car and head back to the precinct, separating when they reach the crime lab. Stella looks up from the microscope as Danny enters the room.

“Any luck with that anonymous tip?”

“Nope, it was a case of mistaken identity. Mr. Harris is a couple inches taller, ten to fifteen pounds lighter, uses a cane and walks with a noticeable limp, and has pure white hair. In addition, he wasn’t in town when the first robbery happened and has a tentative alibi for today’s robbery.”

“Can’t win them all.” Aiden says from where she’s examining the victim’s clothes. “Mac doing a background check on him just to make sure?”

“Yeah, I really hope he comes out clean, because I really don’t want to have to deal with his entourage of lawyers.”

“He already called in his lawyers?”

“Nope, the Assistant manager of the hotel gave us their card. Seems he doesn’t like it when two cops start nosing around a guest, especially when the guest in question happens to own the hotel. I have the feeling he’s already called them.”

“And you’d be right Danny,” Mac says from the doorway. “I’ve just got a nice call from the police chief, who just finished talking with an Associate at Stewart, Higgins, and Houston politely asking us to leave Mr. Harris alone. They’ve requested a copy of the tip that was phoned in to see if they could trace it. Legally, they couldn’t be charged with filing a false report, but I’m sure they’ll be able to make them regret calling in that tip.”

“Damn, the kid has some big guns working for him.” Stella whistles, “It takes a lot of money to have that firm on retainer. Hope you guys were on your best behavior.”

“Mac, did you get to that background check?”

“Yup, Alexander Harris originally from Sunnydale California, but now residing in England.” Mac says, looking at the printout in his hands. “Best friends a Willow Rosenberg, deceased and Buffy Summers, deceased. Normal school history, except for the fact there was a gas main explosion during his high school graduation. The two girls were killed in the explosion, and Mr. Harris was severely injured. When he recovered from his injuries, he moved to England with a Mr. Rupert Giles, who had been the school librarian and a mentor to the boy. He’s been living outside London for nearly a year, returned to the States last month, flying into Denver. His address of record in the States is the Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles, which according to the LA police department is a private residence housing a Detective Agency, Angel Investigations.”

“What is he doing in New York?” Aiden asks, looking up from her work.

“His parents died of alcohol poisoning two months ago.” Mac looks at the faxed death certificate in his hands, “It took the lawyer handling the estate a while to track him down in England. He came back to deal with the estate, and that’s when he found out he was adopted. He’s currently in New York attending a board meeting for the Trust handling his biological mother’s estate. In addition, it turns out that his older half-brother lives in town. I called Ghostbusters Headquarters and talked to one Janine Melnitz, and he was indeed there most of the day. Ray Stantz had picked him up around ten-thirty and he was dropped back off at the hotel around five thirty.”

“Why did he go to Ghostbusters Headquarters?”

“His older brother is one of the Ghostbusters, and the hotel is currently without power thanks to last night’s storm. According to the phone records we were able to pull up, he called Ghostbusters Headquarters around ten o’clock, the call lasted about five minutes, and one of the Ghostbusters picked him up at the hotel and brought him back so he could spend the day with his father and half-brother, get a hot shower, and charge the battery on his cell phone.”

* * *

Back at Ghostbusters Headquarters Janine gently puts the phone back in the cradle, resisting the urge to rip the phone out and throw it across the room. Peter, recognizing the warning signs, slowly walks over and rests one hand on her shoulder.

“Janine, what’s the matter?”

“You’d better call Xander and see if he’s okay. That was the police, they were checking to make sure he was really here all day.”

Peter immediately grabs the phone, calling the hotel.

“Xander, are you okay?” he asks when his brother picks up the phone.

* * *

Xander looks up from the stove, trying to finish the stir-fry he’d been preparing earlier before the sun goes down and the light from the window disappears completely, when the phone on the desk starts to ring. Limping to the counter, he reaches over it and grabs the phone, shoving the receiver between his neck and shoulder as he turns the stove off again and spoons the food onto a plate.

“Hello?”

“Xander are you okay?”

“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t be?” He asks, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the milk he’d brought yesterday. Pouring a glassful, he opens a bottle of water and fills Samhein’s water bowl. The empty bottle is put in the recycling bin under the sink.

“The police called Headquarters checking to make sure you were here today.”

“Yeah, a couple police officers were here earlier, asking me when I arrived in town and what I’d been doing today. The Assistant manager was with them, and later apologized after he had shown them out of my room. It seems there was a shooting earlier today and somebody had called in an anonymous tip that somebody matching the general description had been seen around the hotel. Since I’m the only one here under the age of 21, they interviewed me just as a formality. The lawyers handling the trust have already called me and assured me that it’s been taken care of and I won’t be bothered again.”

“Only you.” Peter smirks, remembering what Giles had said earlier about trouble following Xander around like a puppy.

“Hah, look who’s talking.” Xander smirks in return, lighting a large candle as the sun begins to set. “The others told me about some of the stuff that’s happened to you since they met you. You’re as big a trouble magnet as I am.” Xander drops onto the bar stool, grabbing the lantern, putting it under his other arm before grabbing the handle and beginning to crank it up.

Xander grins after hanging up the phone, turning his attention back to the food. The meal the manager brought up had unfortunately turned cold by the time he had gotten around to eating after talking to the police, so he puts it in the refrigerator to warm up when the electricity comes back on. The dishes he’d been eating off of are placed in the small dishwasher beside the sink, ready to run as soon as the electricity comes back on before Xander limps over to the couch, pausing to turn the fireplace on and change into a pair of pajamas.

Turning on the radio, he turns it to a classic rock station he’d found last night and settles onto the couch, propping the pillows from the bed behind his head as Samhein jumps onto his chest, turns around three times, and settles down to wash himself. Looking over at the clock, Xander sees it’s only a little past eight and moans in dismay, it’s going to be a long night again without any power. Looking down at Samhein, he sees the kitten has settled down for a nap.

“You know, that sounds like a damn good idea.” Xander says, picking up the candle he’d lighted earlier and blowing it out. The lantern is shut off and he snuggles under the blankets, letting the flickering light from the fireplace lull him to sleep.

Samhein waits until his chosen drops off to sleep before delicately hopping off his chest and walking over to the window, leaping up on the ledge and grabbing the handle on the pull cord in his teeth before walking down the length of the windowsill. The curtain is pulled open behind him, allowing the full moon to brighten the room. Xander mumbles on the couch, patting his chest as he rolls over and buries his face in the pillows. Samhein waits until Xander’s breathing indicates he’s deeply asleep again before leaping onto the floor onto a beam of light and begins to shift. Seconds later, a black leopard sits where the kitten had been earlier. Prowling the length of the room, he waits for the two spirits he had sensed following his human to make an appearance. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he senses another guardian make an appearance, seconds later Peso settles beside him.

/Whoa!!!/ the first spirit says when she becomes visible, not expecting to find herself confronted by two large cats with extremely sharp teeth. /Watch out Wills, we got two huuuuuuuggggeeeee cats protecting Xander./ Willow appears, yelping as she jumps behind Buffy despite the fact that both girls are dead.

/Chill cats, I’m his friend Buffy and this is his friend Willow./ Buffy says, backing up when the two cats start stalking the pair.

/Why are you here?/ Samhein growls.

/We’ve been getting a lot of thoughts from Xander today and decided to check up on him./

Peso sniffs the two ghosts and turns to look at Xander. /Is this true?/

/Yes Elder. The bodies of your parents has been found in Colorado,/ Samhein looks at Willow, /and my human is dealing with the funerals as well as his adoptive parents estates. I also believe that this time of year, with the anniversary of your deaths and the explosion so fresh, he is having a difficult time./

/So they finally drank themselves to death, huh?/ Buffy says sarcastically. /Too bad they didn’t do it a few years earlier, Mom would have taken him in in a heartbeat./

/Your mother is a very rare woman, Buffy Summers./ Peso nods gravely, /You might wish to check on her, from Xander’s thoughts it seems that she is having health problems and is taking the anniversary of your death hard as well./

/Thank you, I’ll check on her later tonight./ Buffy says, ghosting a hand over Xander’s messy hair. /Wills, what’s the matter?/

/Have my parents been alive all this time?/ She asks Peso.

/No young one, according to the police they seem to have died within days of their leaving Sunnydale. They will be joining you shortly, they have been in limbo since their deaths, unable to move forward until they learned from their mistakes and their bodies were found./

/And Xan’s parents?/

/Are currently in Purgatory, where they must repent for their actions before they are sent to either Heaven or Hell. Judging from what I have heard of them, they will be there for a very, very long time. Once they have dried out, that is./

/Wait a second, adoptive parents?/

/Yes, it turns out that Xander was adopted by his Aunt and her husband when his mother died of cancer./

/Why? From what little I saw of them, they hated being parents./ Buffy asks.

/Simple, Greed. Xander’s mother left him a lot of the money that you humans find so fascinating./ Samhein says, wondering once again why humans seem to find that stuff so interesting. Never see a cat, or even a dog for that matter, act like a human does when it comes to money. /But his mother knew what they were like and kept the money from them until Xander turns 21, so his parents couldn’t spend it all. They didn’t want him, but they didn’t want anybody else getting their hands on the money either. When Xander was injured, they didn’t expect him to live and washed their hands of him. If they hadn’t died, the others think they would have come back to Xander begging for the money./

/Yeah, and Xander as sweet as he is, would have let them suck him dry./ Willow says sadly.

/Doubtful, his home life was even harsher than you think. And I think your friend Giles would have dealt with them quite harshly for their actions. I believe Xander said that he would have gone Ripper on them./

/I would have liked to seen that./ Buffy says, /But if he really wanted to be nasty, he should have sicced Mom on them. She would have really put the hurt to them and wouldn’t even have bothered to raise her voice. She was really pissed when Wills finally told us that her parents had never returned home from their last trip./ Buffy shudders remembering her mother’s explosion when she found out Willow had been ‘home alone’ for over a month.
/Your mother can be damn scary when she puts her mind to it./ Willow shudders.

/You’re telling me?/ Buffy asks, /I’ve lived with her temper for years and she still scared me. I seriously think that if your parents had been there, I’d have been calling Giles to help hide the bodies. Assuming Mom left anything that could have been identified as human./

/One thing about the Sunnydale Keystone Kops, you wouldn’t have worried about them looking for them./ Willow snorts. /I could have just waited for seven years, had them declared legally dead, and it wouldn’t have even caused a blip on the radar. Any other place the police or social workers would have gotten suspicious about a teenager living on her own./

/Puh-leeze, the Sunnydale social workers are nearly as incompetent as the Sunnydale police department. If they had gotten off of their asses and been doing their jobs, Xander would have been removed from his parents custody years ago./ Buffy snorts in derision.

/What they both need is somebody to take over who actually wants to do the job instead of only being in it for the government paycheck and benefits./ Willow says.

/There’s as much chance of that happening as there is of a snowball fight in hell./ Buffy snorts.

/Yeah, I thought Sunnydale might get a little better without the Mayor pulling the strings behind the scenes, but it looks like it’s not going to happen anytime soon./

/Why is Xan sleeping on the couch when there’s a king sized bed sitting just a couple feet away?/

/The hotel and much of the surrounding area is still without power due to a storm last night. With the fireplace putting out some heat, it is warmer on the couch than it would be on the bed./ Samhein turns his head to look back at his human. /While it is warmer, it is harder on his leg than the bed would be./

/Damn/ Buffy whistles in awe, looking out the window at the surrounding area. /In the daylight, I bet Xander would have a gorgeous view./

/Indeed./

/Xander’s definitely gone up in the world./Willow says, snooping through Xander’s clothes in the dresser and hanging in the closet. /Not a Hawaiian shirt or pair of jeans in sight. What’s he doing in New York anyway?/

/He is attending a board meeting for his mother’s estate as well as spending some time with his older brother./

/Xander’s got family besides the assholes?/ Buffy asks.

/His older half-brother resides in New York, and their father is currently visiting./

/Do Mom and Giles know?/

/They do, Giles remarked on the resemblance before knowing Peter and Alexander were related. Your dear mother, once she found out, called and asked one of coworkers some questions, making sure that his brother was going to be good to Xander./

/Whoa, what is Xander doing with the Ghostbusters?/ Willow asks, looking at the pictures Egon had developed earlier in the day.

/One of them, Peter Venkman, is Xander’s older brother./

/Xander’s related to a Ghostbuster? Cool, Xander always wanted to come to NY and see them in action, but then we found out about the Hellmouth and the Supernatural didn’t seem all that innocent anymore./ She says sadly.

/Hey Wills,/Buffy wraps an arm around her friend, /Why don’t you and I go pay them a little visit and see for ourselves Xander’s older brother./

Willow smiles at her friend as they disappear from the hotel room.

/I almost feel sorry for them, almost./ Samhein snorts as he shifts back to his smaller form and jumps back onto the couch, curling up alongside Xander.

/Who? The girls or the Ghostbusters?/ Peso snorts, leaving to share the story with the Hellmouth. The sound of gentle laughter nearly wakes Xander up, but soothing thoughts from Samhein and the Hellmouth lull him into a deeper sleep.

* * *

Peter looks up from the paper he’d been proofreading when the alarms go off. Egon immediately comes out of the lab, shrugging on the proton pack kept there in case of events like this while Ray comes out with the thrower from the bunkroom.

/Whoa, we come in peace./ The ghost slowly coming into view shouts, holding out her hands in self defense. /Which one of you guys is Peter Venkman?/

/That one, Buffy,/ The second ghost coming into view says, pointing at Peter. /He reminds me of Xander for some reason./

“How did you get through the firehouse’s defenses?” Winston asks, edging around Ray in preparation of running to get another pack while his friends hold the ghosts captive in the beams. “And why are you here anyway?”

/We just wished ourselves here,/ the smaller ghost says, ducking behind her friend. /Look, we just wanted to see your friend there, makesurehewasgonnabegoodbigbrothertoXanderandletsgetouttahereBuffybeforetheyblastusorsomething./

/Willow, breathe./ Buffy says in amusement. /I don’t think they’re going to blast us just yet./

/Buffy, we’re dead, remember? We don’t need to breathe./ Willow says, doing so anyway.

Egon raises an eyebrow at the ghost’s nervous babble, different than the usual threats the Ghostbusters normally deal with and checks the readings on the PKE meter when Peter suddenly realizes who they must be.

“Hold it . . . Buffy? Willow? You’re Xander’s friends that died during graduation, right?”

/Yeah,/ Buffy says, watching in relief as the throwers are lowered and put away. /Sorry to drop in like this, but we just found out that Xander had an older brother and we wanted to make sure you weren’t like his parents, the assholes./

“May I ask why you have chosen to manifest now?” Egon asks as the two young girls seem to settle on the couch. Egon sets the PKE meter to record and pulls up a seat.

/The dead can hear when the living think of them./ Buffy says /And Xander’s been doing a lot of thinking about us the last couple of days./

“The anniversary of the explosion, finding out that he was adopted, and the police in Colorado finding Ms. Rosenberg’s parents.” Egon nods in understanding.

/Correct, so we decided to visit Xander tonight while he slept and see how he was doing. And,/ Egon watches in fascination as Buffy blushes, digging her toe in the carpet, /After spending the last three years battling vampires and demons on the Hellmouth Heaven is kind of . . . sort of . . . well . . . boring. The two big-ass cats Xander has told us what was going on and . . . here we are./

“Big ass cats?”

/Yeah, when we popped into the hotel room there were two huge cats with very sharp teeth waiting for us./

“Peso and . . . who? Samhain?” Peter looks over at Egon.

“Quite possible Peter, Peso seemed quite protective of Xander when we were in Four Corners and there are legends of Familiars having a second form to protect their chosen human.”

/Good, Xander needs all the protecting he can get./ Buffy says, while Willow vigorously nods.

“Can I ask why everybody who knows Xander feels he needs protecting? He seems to be a strong young man who is very capable of taking care of himself?” Egon asks.

/Simple Dr. Spengler, Xander’s the normal one./ Buffy says, /I’m the Slayer, or I was before I died, Willow’s got her magic and is a superbrain, not to mention a whiz at the computer, Giles is my Watcher so he’s got all the training from the Council as well as being a Mage, and Oz is a werewolf. Xander . . . Well, Xander was the Zeppo, the normal one./

“The Zeppo?”

/That’s what he called himself, his job was to be bait for the demons and to run get doughnuts./ Willow says sadly. /He wanted to help so badly, but he just couldn’t do it. During our Senior Year, we tried to get him to stop, ordering him to leave us alone. We thought making him stop patrolling would be safer for him, but he ended up saving all of us by running his car into a group of Zombies who wanted to blow up the school while we were casting a spell in the Library. We didn’t know it at the time, and he never said a word about what he did. The only reason we knew what was going on is that Spike watched him do it and told Angel, who ripped all of us a new one. After that, we knew that leaving him out of the Slayage was not going to be an option./

“Yes, from what Xander and the others have said, Spike and Angel seem to be rather protective of him.”

/That’s a long story,/Buffy says, rolling her eyes. /Let’s just say that Xander is a demon magnet, they usually want to kill him, have sex with him then kill him, or protect him. Spike and Angel couldn’t stand him when they first met, mostly because of Xander’s annoying jokes and nicknames, but he’s grown on them. From what Jenny and William told me, Angel gave Xander to Spike and now he’s the equivalent of a Childe?/

“Can you explain that please?”

/Sure, when a vampire attacks a human, they don’t always turn them. When they do, one of two things can happen. They can give the new vampire just enough blood to survive, making a minion. A minion is basically a killing machine, you know the night of the living dead movies where Zombies overrun the world with no conscious thought other to kill?/ Buffy pauses as everybody nods. /That’s your basic minion, they’re only created for fodder. When a vampire takes more time, a Childe is created, they’ve got all the memories of the person who had been turned, they’re highly intelligent, resourceful, etc. Most Masters will have three or four Childes, and as many minions as they can create. A Childe is usually the halfway step between a minion and a Master Vampire. A minion, assuming they don’t end up being staked right away or don’t end up getting caught out in the sun, usually grows a little smarter over time. Both Angel and Spike are Master Vampires. A Childe is usually very powerful, second only to their Master. When Spike accepted Xander from Angel, he took him under his protection, essentially making him his Childe. Childes, assuming they live long enough, usually become Masters in their own right. Angel and Spike could probably explain it a whole lot better than I can./

“We had planned on taking Xander to Los Angeles to help deal with your parents deaths,” Egon nods to Willow, “And investigate the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Perhaps, if we have time I will ask Angel and Spike to expound on the creation of a Childe and Xander’s role as Spike’s Childe.”

/If you don’t mind my asking, how did you guys meet Xander anyway?/ Willow asks Peter, /You guys were our heroes when Xander and I were younger, we used to fantasize about heading to New York on summer and watch you guys in action. Then Buffy came to town, we found out about the Hellmouth and vampires, and suddenly the Supernatural didn’t seem that innocent anymore./

“We were called to Colorado by the guardians of what turned out to be another Hellmouth.” Peter says, watching the two ghosts reactions the news of another Hellmouth. “Once we realized what we were dealing with, we called in your friend Giles and Wesley as the experts on Hellmouths. Xander flew in from England with Giles, and we became friends in the time we spent in Colorado.”

/Buffy, there’s another Hellmouth?/Willow asks, grabbing at Buffy’s sleeve.

/Yeah Wills, There’s one in Cleveland too. I was nearly sent there after Merrick was killed, but the Hellmouth there was quiet and I was sent to Sunnydale instead. Usually though,/ Buffy turns her attention back to Peter, /there’s only one Hellmouth active at one time./

“This is a very unusual Hellmouth,” Peter says dryly, “For one thing, it’s sentient and for another, it’s extremely old, much much older than the Sunnydale Hellmouth. It’s so old, it, or should I say he, appears and disappears at intervals, much like the mythical city of Brigadoon.” Buffy blinks at Peter’s words “While we were in Colorado, the Hellmouth took an interest in Xander.”

Buffy and Willow exchange looks. /Xander the Demon Magnet strikes again./ Buffy says, /I take it that’s where the Cat comes from?/

“One of them.” Peter says, “The second one is Samhein, Xander’s new familiar.”

/Xander has a familiar?/ Willow asks, and Peter remembers that both Xander and Ray had said she was a Wicca. /I didn’t think he had any magic. I knew magic went screwy around him . . . but . . . Xander . . . Magic?/

“Yes, it turns out that constant exposure to the Hellmouth had warped his magic, which is why magic went . . . screwy . . . around him. When he moved away, the interference lessened and the Colorado Hellmouth was able to straighten Xander’s gifts out.” Egon says dryly. “Girls, is something the matter, you’re beginning to look a little transparent.” Egon immediately takes another reading of the pair as Buffy holds up her hands, staring as she looks through them. /We’ve been here too long and we’re getting a little weak./ Buffy says, sounding like she’s talking though a long tunnel. With an audible pop, the two girls vanish from the couch, causing Egon’s eyebrow to rise into his hairline as he takes readings of the spot where the two girls had been sitting moments earlier.

Buffy and Willow shake their heads, trying to get their bearings as they reappear in Heaven outside of the copy of the High School Library where they’d spent so much time when they were alive. Willow leans on Buffy as she opens the doors, finding the others waiting inside for them.

“Buffy, Willow, where did you girls go?” Jenny Calendar asks, looking up from the computer as Willow and Buffy drop onto seats at the table. Kendra looks over from where she’s sparring with Jesse in the corner of the room and seeing the look on her fellow Slayer’s face, drops the quarterstaff and follows Jesse to the table.

“We went to check on Xander.” Buffy says, “Has anybody else been getting a lot of thoughts from him recently?”

“No more than usual.” Jesse says, “Why, do you know something we don’t?”

“Oh yeah,” Buffy says, “Have a seat, Kendra, Jesse. We have a long story to tell you, and it all starts about a month or so ago when Xander’s parents died.”

“Hold on,” Jenny says, holding up one hand as she grabs the phone from the desk, “Let me get the others here so we don’t have to go over the story more than once?”

Buffy looks up five minutes later as Drusilla and William enter the room. Dropping into chairs, they look over at Buffy.

“Willow and I have been down on Earth, checking on Xander.” Buffy repeats for the new arrivals, “we’ve been getting a lot of thoughts from him recently. He’s had a lot of stuff happen to him in the last couple of months.”

“What has the dear boy done this time?” William asks, rolling his eyes sounding very much like Giles when he's about ready to take his glasses off and polish them.

“Well, for once it wasn't his doing.” Willow says, “This time anyway. It seems there's a Hellmouth in Colorado and Wesley, Giles, and Xander were called in as experts by the Ghostbusters.”

Jesse looks over at Willow and Buffy. “Xander got to actually meet the Ghostbusters, Cool.”

“Yeah, well it turned out that this Hellmouth is way different than the one we're used to, it's a whole lot older and it's sentient, whatever that means.” Buffy says.

“It means that the Hellmouth is aware of it's surrounding, Buffy.” William says, “Fascinating, I'd heard rumors of a mythical Hellmouth like that, but I thought they were only rumors.”

“Anyway, Xander the demon magnet struck again and the Ghostbusters told us that it took an interest in Xander.” Willow pauses as William gets to his feet, pacing as he mumbles something about 'bloody youngster attracting more demons than a ruddy soccer match.”

“Are you sure you weren't a Watcher?” Buffy asks dryly, “you sound just like Giles when one of us did something really stupid.”

“No, I couldn't possibly be that uptight.” William snorts. “But my brothers and Father were. Please go on, you were saying that the Hellmouth had taken an interest in young Alexander?”

“Yeah, it turns out that he's got some gifts, but being around the Sunnydale Hellmouth most of his life warped them?” Willow says, “It seems he's a medium, but doesn't have any natural shields?”

“Which explains why every demon in Sunnydale seemed to be after him at one time or another.” Jenny and William say in unison. “Why didn't Rupert see it?”

“I'm not sure, unless it was the Hellmouth's interference again.”

“Quite possible,”William says, “If the Hellmouth had been tainting the boys abilities, it wouldn't have wanted anybody else finding out about them. The year in England would have been long enough for the effects to wear off, and since Giles didn't know Xander had any gifts, he never bothered to check the boy out magically.”

“Right,” Buffy said, “anyway, the Hellmouth straightened Xander's gifts out, now Wesley and Giles are getting him some magical training.”

“Xander's got magical gifts too? Of course,” Jenny slaps her forehead lightly, “that's why magic went wrong around him.”

“Yeah, it seems he's a medium, he's an empath, and he's got telepathic and telekinetic gifts too that are locked away until he can get some training in them.” Buffy says, ticking off items on her hand.

“Good lord, when the boy does things, he doesn't go halfway, does he?” William asks, rubbing his hand over his face. “Next thing you'll tell me is he's a bloody Natural Mage too, right?” He turns and looks at Willow and Buffy, who quietly nods. “Please tell me you're joking?”

“Uhh nope, I thought that's what the two cats said.” Buffy says, looking at Willow, “wasn't it?”

“I don't remember the cats saying anything like that, Buffy, but then I was still numb after hearing that my parents had been found.”

“I thought the cats had told me about Xander's abilities, but now I'm not so sure.” Buffy says, closing her eyes as she tries to remember the two conversations from earlier tonight. “I think you're right though Willow, I don't remember the cats saying what Xan's gifts were, and his brother just said he had some gifts, not what they were.”

“Wait a second Willow, you said something about your parents?”

:”Yeah, it seems they've been dead all this time, their bodies were found earlier this week.” Willow says sadly. “At least I finally know the truth, and they didn't just abandon me.”

“Ohh, honey.” Jesse and Jenny get up, pulling Willow into their arms. Buffy smiles sadly at her friend and stands up, heading back towards the door.

“Buffy, where are you going now?” Drusilla asks.

“The two big cats who were guarding Xander when we popped in on him told me that my mom's been having some health problems and the anniversary has been hitting her pretty hard. I'm going to go check on her.”

“I'll go with you, it's been too long since I checked in on my family.” William says, wrapping an arm around his great-great-granddaughter seven or eight generations removed shoulders and leads her to the door. “Drusilla love, did you want to check in on Ethan and Derek?”

“Yes, I'm afraid something's the matter, I haven't felt Ethan's magic in a while.” Drusilla Rayne says, putting down the book she had picked up.

Buffy shakes her head as memories flood into her mind. “Okay, that was just weird, but now I know how I knew all that stuff about Xander.. Ethan and Derek are at the Hyperion with Giles. Xander managed to cut Ethan off from the Chaos magic that was destroying him, he's recuperating at the hotel with Giles, and plans on moving back to England with them when they return home. Derek is helping Xander with the Harris' estate, he's going to buy the house from him for a Legacy research house?”

Buffy blinks and looks at Drusilla. “You knew, didn't you?”

“Of course, I was there when he was born.” Drusilla says calmly. “She does too, dimly. She recognized him as blood and is as protective of him as she is of Xander.”

“Buffy?”

“Oz is Ethan's son.” Buffy says, then blinks as she remembers something else she saw. “Wills, I don't quite know how to say this, but . . .”

“But what Buffy?”

“Mom and Cordelia think that Oz and Xander have feelings for each other.”

Wilow takes a deep breath, closing her eyes as Jesse and Jenny wrap supportive arms around her again. She opens her eyes and nods. “Good, I don't want either of them to be alone, and who better for my boyfriend than my best friend? I always thought that Oz was attracted to Xander, just a little. If I hadn't been so scared of losing Oz, I think that I would have invited Xander to the Bronze while Oz was playing with the dingoes and talked to them both about their feelings. But Oz graduated and headed for Tibet to see if he could control the wolf and I . . . died.”

“Oz cared for you too, Wills.” Buffy says, cupping Willow's cheek. “He started back immediately after he got the letter from the others.”

“Good, I hope he and Xander do get together.” Willow says, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Buffy, how did you know that?” Jenny asked, looking over at her.

“I just saw it in my head, Derek bringing Ethan to the hotel, Xander . . .” Buffy shakes her head, trying to remember what she had seen, “Xander did something and Ethan collapsed. I saw Xander having lunch with mom and Cordelia, looking out the window of the cafe and seeing Oz in the street. They brought Oz back to the hotel and Derek took him in his arms, asked him what he had been doing to himself, he was too thin and his father would be upset, then calling in Ethan from the kitchen..” Jenny blinks, grabbing books to look at as they leave to check on their relatives.

“I've never heard of somebody getting visions like that after they were dead.” Willow says, sitting down at the computer. “Wouldn't she have had them before if she was a Seer?”

“Possibly, but being the Slayer might have blocked any other abilities she might have had. Or. . .” Jenny turns and grabs a specific book, opening it to a page, reading quickly, and nodding. 'Thought so, the Powers have finally decided what sort of duties Buffy's going to have up here.”

“What is it?”

“I don't know yet, there's just a note in the book saying that somebody will be coming later to talk to us.”

Meanwhile, at the Hyperion Hotel Giles is sitting on a couch watching Oz work on the occult book database. In the beginning, he'd been appalled at the thought of how much work putting all the books on computer and making them accessible in a database would entail, but the work seems to be progressing rapidly. Oz finishes typing with a flourish, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms. “Done,” he announces triumphantly.

“I'm stunned that we're moving as quickly as we are.” Angel says, coming into the room with a mug of blood and dropping onto the couch. For once, it's a quiet night and he turns the nightly news on before starting to drink. Spike drops onto the couch beside him, stretching out and putting his feet up on the coffee table.

“The hard part is scanning the books.” Oz says, saving everything before shutting down the computer and getting up. “It only takes a few minutes to collate the pages into readable form, creating a file for each book, then files for each chapter, and updating the index for the new information. If we had another scanner, we could do two books at a time.”

“Can we hook a second scanner up to the computer?” Cordelia asks, walking over and knocking Spike's feet off the coffee table.

“I'd have to look at them, but I think you can connect it to the computer by an usb cable.” Oz says. “Yours is ancient.”

“Like most everything else around here, but it still works.” Cordelia snorts. “The Boss doesn't buy anything new unless he has to.”

“I believe I can help you out with a new scanner.” Derek says from his spot on another couch across the room. “If you can help us out by putting our books on a similar system.” he smiles. “And didn't I hear that Egon and the others would like to do the same with their books? Not to mention the books Xander inherited, or purchased while in New York?” Everybody blinks, then moans as they realize how many more books they're going to be scanning. “I'll e-mail them, ask them what sort of computer system they have, and send them the program I'm using and a password for the server.” he says. “They can do the same thing we're doing, a few books a day until it's finished. Then I'll put everything together and update the index files. For security reasons, we'll need a new server for the Legacy books.” Nick looks up and nods from his spot at a small table, typing up a report for William Sloan.

“Sloan doesn't like that idea.” He says, getting back an IM from the London House. “Too much of a chance of sensitive information leaking out.”

“Tell Sloan he'll finally be able to put those older journals on a database before they finally disintegrate completely.” Derek calls over his shoulder. “That should get him to change his mind.

“You're right, Sloan just sent back a grudging acceptance, he's going to talk to his computer techs about what he'd need.”

Buffy, Drusilla, and William silently appear in the room, just standing and watching the interaction between the others for a second. Buffy snickers as she watches Cordy complaining about Xander hasn't called them yet, and Wesley reminding her that it's three hours later in New York, the electricity might not be back on yet at the hotel, and that he is there on business, not pleasure after all.

/Mommy./ Buffy whispers, seeing Joyce sitting on a couch listening to three or more conversations and managing to keep track of them all. /Oh my god, she looks so old./ she whimpers, burying her face in William's coat when he wraps his arms around her. /When did Mom get old?/

/That might be the effects of the brain tumor./ Drusilla says, ruffling Buffy's hair. /Remember, it was your mother's appearance that led to the brain tumor being discovered./

Buffy sniffles, straightening up and wiping her eyes on the back of her hand before moving back to the couch Joyce is relaxing on after her doctor appointment and, concentrating, wraps her mother in a hug. /I love you mommy./ she whispers in her ear before straightening up and walking back to the others.

“Joyce, what's the matter?” Giles asks when Joyce abruptly sits up on the couch, looking around. Everybody's where they had been just a second ago, so who had just held her?

“Joyce?” Ethan asks, when she continues to look around.

“I could swear somebody just held me.” she says, looking around again before settling back down on the couch.

Drusilla and William pull Buffy back into their arms as they vanish, appearing back at the Library to find a man waiting with Jenny and Willow.

'Ello Leo, how can we help one of the Elders?” William asks, dropping into a chair at the table.

“Actually, I'm here to help you.” He says, smiling at the young Slayer as she settles into a chair after being hugged by everybody else. “The Powers have finally decided on Buffy's 'Ultimate Destiny',” he makes quotation marks with his fingers in midair. “So I'm here to give you some books to help you with her training. And yes, Willow can help.” he says seeing her mouth open. “I know that William and Drusilla know most of what's in the books.”

William looks at the pile of books on the center of the table then blinks at his old friend. “I always knew the Powers had to be cracked. They want Buffy to do that?”

“Who better than a former Slayer?” Leo shrugs, porting out of the room. “Think a second about it.” he whispers in William's ear. William blinks, then looks at Buffy and starts snickering. “You guessed it.” Leo whispers in his ear again.

The next morning Xander wakes up to the sound of the refrigerator running. Sighing, he pushes the covers off himself, looking over at Samhein sitting on the coffee table washing behind his ears. Ruffling the fur on top of the kitten's head, he walks into the bathroom and takes a hot shower. Being without power the last couple of days had almost been like being back in Four Corners, but not quite. Walking out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist, he checks his phone messages finding a note from Peter and the others for him to call them back.

“Guys,” Ray asks as they eat breakfast. “Got a question, do we want to tell Xander about our visitors last night, yes or no?” Peter and Egon look at each other for a long minute before looking at Winston.

“Ask me, I vote for no.” he says calmly, holding up a hand as everybody starts talking. “Let me explain, Xander's going through a lot right now, dealing with finding out he was adopted and finding out more about his momma,taking care of the Harris estate and now his friend Willow's, meeting you and Charlie. . . Do we really want to add more weight on his shoulders with the knowledge that his friends are ghosts?”

“Actually Winston, the readings I had on the girls weren't quite normal class 3 readings, but I see your point.” Egon says calmly as the phone rings. Ray gets up and answers it, smiling at the voice on the other end. “Hey Xander, you finally get electricity back at your hotel? You did, cool. Listen, the board meetings you're here for don't start until tomorrow afternoon, right? Terry and Aggie's store is closed today, they thought you might like to take a road trip out to your Mom's house here in New York, it's about an hour outside of the city. Yes, you still own it, Aggie and Terry turned it into a library/study center for the local wiccans after your mothers death. Sure, we'll pick you up in about an hour, you'll have plenty of time to eat breakfast.”

Peter smiles as he wipes his mouth, grabbing the empty plates from the table and loading the dishwasher. “Ray, why don't you go call Aggie and Terry and tell them we'll be getting ready to go in about an hour?” Ray wipes his face, hands Peter his cleaned off plate, and picks up the phone again. “Who wants to go pick up Xander at his hotel?” He asks, hand over the mouthpiece of the phone as it begins to ring. “Aggie, Ray. We just talked to Xander, he's got the day free like we thought and we'll be ready to leave in an hour. Do you want us to come to the store or your house? Okay, we can do that.” he says, smiling before putting the phone down. “They're meeting us here, we're closer to the freeway.”

Back at his hotel room, Xander puts the phone down, walks over to the kitchen and turns the dishwasher on and opens the window a crack to air the room out before dressing in comfortable jeans and a t-shirt. He pulls the brace on as a knock at the door announces the arrival of breakfast and the morning papers. Sitting down at the kitchen island, he starts to eat, looking over his shoulder at Samhein as the kitten hops off the coffee table and walks over to his food and water dishes.

“Hey kitten, I'm going on a trip with the others today. You want to come with us or stay here?” Xander asks. Samhein looks at the human and hops onto the bed, curling into a ball and looking at him upside down. Xander snickers,“ I'll take that as a no. Okay, you stay here and nap.” he snickers, putting the room service dishes out in the hall and cleaning up everything he'd been putting off while waiting for the power to come back on. He looks around the room before checking the time, grabbing a light jacket to take along in case it turns colder, and after petting a purring Samhein he grabs his bag, sticks a couple bottles of water inside, and heads down the hall towards the elevator. The elevator comes immediately at his call, and he heads downstairs, finding Peter and Ray walking in the door just as he exits the elevator.

Xander settles in the back seat and they head back to the hotel, with Xander leaning against the window looking at landmarks as they go past.

“You have any meetings Saturday or Sunday?” Peter asks his brother.

“No, why?” Xander looks over his shoulder at Peter.

“Well, I was thinking that unless something comes up, why don't we show you around town? Stuff that you don't find in the guidebooks. Dad's still in town for some reason, he can come along if he wants.” Peter shrugs. He's giving his father the benefit of the doubt, the older man really seems to want to mend his relationship with Peter and get to know Xander.

They pull up in front of the firehouse, finding Terry's car parked in front. Ray beeps the horn, bringing Winston to the window to look down. “They're here.” he tells the others waiting inside. Everybody comes out of the firehouse, getting into the vehicles and pulling away from the firehouse.

An hour later they pause in the middle of a street. The first thing Xander sees is a black wrought iron fence on the other side of the sidewalk, a gate leading to a set of stairs. Xander's eyes trail up the steps, just as steep as Aggie, Terry, and Charlie had told him, following them up to a . . .

“That's not a house, that's a mansion.” He says, blinking. “No wonder my mother had enough room for all the books she left me.” Ray follows Aggie's down the street, Xander noticing with shock that his mom's house takes up the entire block, around the corner so he can see it from the side, and down the back street, pulling into a parking area. Xander gets out of the car, still staring at the house as Charlie wraps an arm around him, ushering him towards the door where a man is waiting for them.

“Aggie, Terry, is something the matter? We weren't expecting you today.” He asks, looking at the others as they come closer.

“Everything's fine, Jack.” Terry assures the caretaker they'd hired. “This is Annie's son Alexander,” She wraps an arm around his shoulders, “we brought him here today so he could see the place. Is anybody else here today studying?”

“No, it's quiet here today.” Jack says with a smile. “Anything I can help you with?” he asks, smiling at the others.

“You sure can,” Aggie says, tossing him the keys to their car. “I have a batch of groceries in the trunk you can bring into the kitchen. I figured we'd be here for a few hours, and brought stuff for lunch.”

Jack smiles and nods, catching the keys in midair and heading to the back of their car, carrying the bags into the kitchen. Everything pitches in to put the groceries away before starting to explore the mansion.

“The first floor is open to the public.” Terry says, showing them small rooms for reading, working, or studying “Covens can use the grounds for formal events, if they book them ahead of time. Any money we make is used in upkeep. Do any of you feel anything on the grounds.”

“Peaceful.” Xander says, closes his eyes. “It's almost like being back in Four Corners.”

“Four Corners?” Aggie asks, looking at the others as Xander seems almost to go in a trance.

“Long story, and not one we're allowed to tell you.” Peter says. “I've heard about places like these, they almost never change hands.”

“Right. This has been in your Mother's family for years, Xander.” Aggie says, waving an arm around. Second and third floors are the libraries, each room is devoted to one area, the top floor is off limits to the general public, it was your mother's private quarters.”

Xander looks at the rooms and rooms of books and sighs. “Guys, remind me not to bring Giles and Wesley here, okay? I doubt we'd be able to drag them away with anything less than the world coming to an end.” Xander looks back at the books, “Even then, I don't think we'd get them out quickly.” Peter snickers at his brother's resigned tones.

Xander follows Terry up the stairs, Aggie heading to the kitchen to start cooking, watching as she unlocks a door on the stairwell. Opening the door, she leads them into a foyer off the stairs, going to start opening some windows to freshen the rooms. Xander looks around, and before he knows he's moving, he walks down the hall towards the other rooms. Pausing in one doorway he looks at the room, feeling the wards wrapping around him.

“You were born here, Xander.” Terry says, standing behind him. She pushes him onto a couch in the room and walks over to a bookcase, coming back with a photograph album she opens. “We started this album when Anna first found out she was pregnant.” Xander looks at a picture of his mother, holding a hand protectively over her still flat stomach. Xander turns pages in the album, watching his mother grow bigger and bigger as her pregnancy progresses, the last picture is her lying in a bed, hair plastered to her forehead holding a newborn baby in her arms. Aggie and Terry are sitting on either side of the bed, all three women smiling at the camera.

Terry leads them to another room, “This was your room Xander.” she says, showing them a nursery done in blues and greens, a toddler bed against one wall, a teddy bear still sitting on the bed. Almost before he knows what he's doing, Xander walks across the room, picking up the bear and rubbing his face against the fur. “Bah”

“You flat out refused to sleep without that bear.” Terry says fondly. “Aggie and I were stunned to find it sitting on your bed when we came back after your aunt and uncle took you away. I always thought you'd come back for him someday.”

Xander puts the teddy bear down, following her down the hall. Terry points to a door across the hall from the nursery. “That was going to be your room when you got older.” She says, opening the door to show an empty room. “Your mother had such plans for that room. She'd have an idea of what it should look like,draw it up, then change her mind and draw something else.” Terry's eyes grow sad when she opens one last room. “Xander, this was your mother's bedroom.”

Xander walks into the room, touching the bed. “She died here, didn't she?” he asks, looking over his shoulder at Terry. She nods, too choked up to say anything else. He closes his eyes, bowing his head for a second before walking out of the room. Terry shuts the door behind him, leading him down the hall towards the other rooms.

A couple of hours later, Aggie finishes washing the last of the dishes and turns to look at the others. Terry and Charlie are busy telling the others stories about Xander's mother, along with stories about when Xander had been a baby and living here. Aggie looks out the window and sighs as she sees the signs of foul weather coming in.

“Terry, start packing things up hon. Looks like a sudden storm is going to blow in and I'd rather not be on the roads when it starts pouring.”

Egon turns to look at the others as Terry calls for the caretaker, who turns to look at Aggie, then at the sky, nods, and begins buttoning up the house.

“I don't see a cloud in the sky.”

“Aggie has a knack for predicting the weather.” Ray says, remembering previous times when Aggie's got the same look in her eyes and predicted bad weather. “Remember last winter when I started stocking up on food and other supplies. Aggie told me we were going to get a blizzard, and we did.”

“I remember, nobody was able to predict the blizzard before it hit.” Egon says. “Do you believe it will be as bad as the one earlier this week?”

“No, the sky's just going to open up and pour the rest of the day and tomorrow. I hope you don't have any busts planned, it's going to be a bitch driving in that kind of rain. You know, the type the wipers don't even make a dent in.”

Xander looks at the others and shrugs. “I got plenty of books and dvds to keep me occupied today, and the board meetings are at the hotel, so I don't have to go anywhere. It will clear up by Saturday so we can go sightseeing?” he turns and asks Aggie.

“Yep, now have you figured out how you're going to get everything back to Los Angeles?” she asks him, putting the last of the dishes away. The leftovers are put in the refrigerator for the caretaker as everybody gathers their belongings and head to the car.

“We're going to be taking him in Ecto three.” Egon says firmly, they'd decided on it last night. “I would like to get some more readings of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. The two of you can come along if you wish, that way you can check out the artifacts found in the Harris house and see if any of them belonged to Xander's mother.”

“Do you think that Sarah can handle the store by herself?” Aggie asks Terry.

“I think Charmaine wanted to work some more hours, to save money for school clothes.” Terry says, smiling. “With both her and Tara helping, she shouldn't have any problem handling the store for a week or so. When do you plan on heading back?”

“Not for a couple of weeks yet,” Xander says getting into the front seat at Ray's prodding. “I've still got a couple of weeks of meetings, and the lawyer will say it will take at least that long to start probating the Rosenberg' wills.”

“And Derek and his friends are coming in next week when that moron is due to make his usual appearance at the store.” Aggie says. “I don't know who the idiot is, but hopefully Derek can stop him from bothering us at the store any more.” The cars pull out of the driveway, Xander staring out the window back at the house where he had spent the first two years of his life until the mansion is out of sight. Held tight against his chest is Bah.

Xander is standing by the window in his hotel room when Aggie's prediction comes true and the sky opens up. The Ghostbusters had just pulled into the firehouse, everybody but Ray turns and stares out the door in disbelief. “Be glad it's summer and not winter,” he shrugs, “if this was snow instead of rain,the city would be shut down for a week.”

“Where are you going, Ray?” Winston asks as Ray runs upstairs to the tv room.

“News is coming on in a couple of minutes, I want to see how they try to explain this sudden rainstorm.” Ray says, unaware that Xander's doing the same thing in his hotel room before going down to the hotel's fitness room. He snickers as one newscaster refers to the rainstorm as 'Mother Nature's rinse cycle' before shutting off the news and leaving the hotel room.

The hotel manager smiles as Xander comes downstairs, shaking his head as he sees people running down the sidewalk with papers, briefcases, or anything they can grab over their heads to try to keep dry.

“Does this happen often?”

“Once or twice a year.” He sighs. “At least it's rain and not snow, the city would grind to a complete and sudden stop. We had this type of weather last year, and ended up with people sleeping on the floor in the conference rooms because all the rooms were booked and people were stranded here until the city started digging out.” He turns his attention back to the door as a woman and man come in, shaking water off their clothes as Xander walks down to the fitness center, sliding into the hot tub to soak for a half-hour.

A growling stomach sends him back up to his hotel room, pulling out the meal the manager had brought up yesterday and putting it in the microwave to warm before walking over to the couch and grabbing his cell phone from the coffee table, walking back to the kitchen island when the microwave beeps.

“Hello?”

“Hi Wesley, it's me.” Xander says, picking up his fork and taking a bite of food.

“Xander, how are you doing?” he asks, turning the speaker phone on as the others cluster around the desk.

“Okay, we finally got electricity back at the hotel this morning. I got a hot shower, washed dishes, and spent the day with Terry, Aggie, Charlie, and the guys. The board meetings for my trust start tomorrow, but the guys have promised to take me sightseeing this weekend if they don't have a bust scheduled.”

“Take lots of picture, Xander.” Cordelia says in the background. “And make sure you bring us back lots of souvenirs.” Xander snickers as he hears the others sighing. “Cordy.” he can hear Angel say patiently. “What? Some postcards, maybe a couple of t-shirts.”

“Ohh, that reminds me.” Xander says, standing up and heading to the couch where his bag is lying. “Egon and Winston developed some of the pictures from Four Corners and there was a slight film on them that we think was the film picking up the Hellmouth. Egon was wondering if anybody had taken any pictures in Sunnydale that might show the same thing. I told him that any pictures we did take probably would have been fixed in the developing lab, thinking it was an error on the film.”

“I hadn't thought of possible photographic evidence of Hellmouth activity.” Giles says, looking over at Wesley who shakes his head in denial. “And I doubt that the Watchers Council would have thought of the possibility.”

“That's what we figured. The guys have volunteered to fly me back after the board meetings so Egon can take some more readings of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Aggie and Terry are coming along, something about terr. . . err, visiting their brothers?” Xander snickers as he can hear Ethan and Wesley groan in unison.

“Are your sisters really that bad?” Cordy asks, looking over at the two men as their lovers snicker helplessly.

“Let's just say they're two very strong willed women and leave it at that.” Wesley finally says, sighing. “Trust me, you do not want to get on their bad sides, but if they're your friends, if you need anything they'll be there.”

Xander shuts the phone off about ten minutes later, walking over to the couch and turning on his laptop to check his e-mail, mumbling rude phrases under his breath since most of it is junk mail. Smiling, he scans the photos on the portable scanner, looking the pictures over before sending them to Oz' e-mail address. Picking up the phone, he dials the Hyperion again, getting the answering machine. “Cordy, it's Xander. Tell Oz to check his e-mail, I scanned some of the pictures Egon developed from Four Corners. I'll be bring the prints and negatives back with me, and talk to Deadboy about the possibility of turning one of the unused rooms into a darkroom?”

The next two weeks seem to drag as Xander attends round after round of meetings, but the others take his mind off his inheritance by picking him up at the hotel when they don't have a bust and taking him on a tour around the city taking pictures wherever he goes and developing them at the firehouse, teaching him how it's done.

They're heading back to the hotel one day when the guys get an emergency call from the firehouse, and rather than taking the time to drop Xander off at either the firehouse or hotel, the guys end up bringing him with them, ordering him to stay in the car while they put their gear on and run into Central park where they can hear the screams.

“Aww hell, I thought this was going to be a hard bust.” Peter whines as he catches sight of the entity tearing up the park. “Hey tall, dark, and ugly, why don't you pick on someone your own species?” he calls, firing up his proton pack and shooting a beam at the class four. Winston and Ray follow him seconds later, while Egon throws out a trap. They're greeted by cheers by the few remaining spectators in the park as they turn around. Peter smirks and begins playing up to the crowd and camera crew, while Ray nudges Egon, pointing to where Xander was watching everything from his spot, still sitting in the car like ordered. They hadn't known it at the time, but they'd left Ecto in the perfect spot for Xander to get a birds eye view of the entire battle, such as it was.

Xander watches as the guys finally make their way back to the car, putting their gear away before piling into the car.

“Xander, you okay?” Peter asks. Xander turns to look at him. “That was so cool!!!”

“Ahh, that was nothing.” he says. “Usually our busts are a lot harder, and sometimes dangerous. To quote Shakespeare, this was much ado over nothing. So, you want to go to your hotel, or come back to the Firehouse? We can show you how we transfer ghosts from the traps to our containment unit, and watch us perform maintenance on the packs.”

The guys pull into the firehouse fifteen minutes later, shocking Janine who'd been listening to the radio trying to get an update on the case.

“What happened? Why are you back so soon? Is anybody hurt?” she asks, jumping to her feet. She's stunned when she sees Xander get out of the car, helping Ray unload the packs.

“Ahh, it was just a normal class five tearing up the park.” Peter snorts. “Xander came along to watch us transfer the gomer to the containment unit and perform pack maintenance before we take him back to the hotel to pack for the flight to LA tomorrow. Make up a bill and charge them extra for making such a fuss over it, will ya?” Peter calls over his shoulder as he leads Xander down to the basement.

Janine and Egon exchange amused looks as she turns to the computer, making up an invoice and putting it in the outbox.

“So what happens if they don't pay?” Xander asks Peter as they come up to the containment unit.

“We take the class five back to the park and let him loose again.” Peter smirks at his younger brother. “The city is usually good about paying, we've only had to release one ghost, and they immediately paid.”

“Was that the time Ray destroyed the Chandelier?” Xander asks, watching Peter put the trap in the unit and release the class five inside. The trap goes onto a pile of others to clean and charge before they're used again as they head back upstairs. Xander watches as they guys check their packs before putting them up, Winston and Ray heading down into the basement to clean traps while Egon gets behind the wheel of Ecto to take Xander back to his hotel. Xander had had to go buy a new set of luggage to take everything back to LA, idly wondering if there was a handy dandy shrinking spell or bottomless trunks like in the Harry Potter books while he's packing. He'd finished off the last of his groceries the previous night, heading down to the restaurant when his stomach started growling.

“I can't believe it, but I'm actually going to miss this place.” he thinks, crawling under the covers for the last time. Samhein takes his usual place on the other pillow and they both drift off to sleep. A knock on the door the next morning is a bellhop with a cart, and he starts loading boxes to take downstairs while Xander tries to convince Samhein to get in the carrier. The bellhop silently snickers as he takes the first load of baggage downstairs, finding the Ghostbusters pulling up outside the door. The four men quickly have Xander's belonging transferred to the back of the car, grinning as Xander comes out, an empty cat carrier in one hand. Samhein's head pokes out of the top of Xander's jacket, looking at the others before disappearing back inside his hiding place. Xander settles in the back seat between Egon and Peter, heading for the airport and private hanger where Terry and Aggie are waiting. The two cars are driven into Ecto-3 and tied down, and the others head up the stairs into the cabin. Samhein settles in Xander's lap once he settles in a seat, his ears flattening against his head and looking upside down at him, doing what Xander calls his 'angry bat' impression as the plane taxis down the runway and takes off.

The hotel is deserted when Xander and the others arrive, Xander unlocking the main doors and looks quickly around inside for Spike or Angel before opening the doors and ushering the others inside. Taking keys from the pegboard behind the old counter, he leads the way to the linen closets and loads down Egon, Winston, and Peter with sheets, bedspreads, and towels.

“Just once I'd like to stay at a hotel and not have to make up my own room.” Peter mock complains as Xander shows them up to their rooms. The others ignore him with the ease of years of practice, opening windows to air the rooms out and quickly making the beds before heading back to the lobby where Xander finds a note from the others, saying they'll be back in a couple of hours and that Xander needs to call his lawyer to make an appointment to go over the Rosenberg estate, Colorado authorities had released the bodies earlier that week.

Xander looks up as Winston and Peter unload Xander's belongings from the back of Ecto while Egon takes over a pair of empty rooms, turning them into a lab and makeshift darkroom. Xander had been surprised to find the components already there when he'd arrived, a note in Angel's handwriting merely said 'She nagged me into it.” explaining everything. Egon was thrilled, in his usual understated way, to find out he wouldn't need to send the film back to New York for Janine to develop for them.

“Hey!” Oz says, walking into the lobby and dropping onto the couch across from Xander. Samhein looks over at the new human from his spot on Xander's shoulder. “Huh!” he says, seeing the kitten looking back at him. “Brat?”

“Haven't seen him yet.” Xander chuckles. “Brat is Spike's cat, and well named.” he says at the other's looks. A loud meow heralds the arrival of the white cat, who seems to come out of nowhere to investigate the newcomers. He walks across the back of the couch, stopping at Xander's other shoulder and eying the new kitten.

“You two going to get along?” Xander asks both felines, smiling as each of them look at him with identical 'are you daft?' looks. Oz snickers, quickly standing up and walking across the room when Aggie and Terry come down the stairs.

“Daniel, come here and give your old aunts a hug.” Terry orders, pulling him into her arms before holding him at arms length. “What the hell have you been doing to yourself? You are much too thin.” Xander snickers quietly on the couch as the door opens again and Joyce walks into the room, a small overnight case in her hand.

“Joyce, what's the matter?” Xander asks, quickly getting up from his seat on the couch and walking over to her.

“Can I borrow a room for a couple of days? They're working on the water mains outside my condo and they're saying we won't have water for nearly a week. Of course, they couldn't have told us that before they started work to give us time to make other arrangements.” Joyce snorts. “The condo association is not amused and is talking to their lawyer.”

Xander grins as he walks back behind the counter, tossing a key to Oz who comes back from the linen closet with an armful of supplies, followed seconds later by Aggie and Terry who take the load from his arms and push him towards the door.

“Do you have more luggage to bring in, Mrs. Summers?” Oz asks, handing her the room key and taking the car keys from her hand, heading towards where he can see her car pulled outside the door.

“Yes dear, I have a couple more bags in the trunk and some groceries in the back seat. I brought everything I thought would go bad by the time I got back, and stopped to the grocery store as well.” She looks over at the other two women and smiles, looking at Xander with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh sorry, Mrs. Summers. This is Aggie and Therese Stevens, friends of my mom.
In addition, Aggie is Wesley's older sister, and Ethan is Terry's younger brother.” Joyce looks at them and nods. “Yes, I can see the resemblance, and who is this little guy?” She walks over and scratches Samhein under the chin, earning a rumbling purr.

“That's Samhein, and I'm not sure if he's mine or I'm his.” Xander snickers as Samhein turns to look at him. “And these are the Ghostbusters: Winston Zeddemore, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and my brother Peter Venkman.” Peter reaches over and pulls Xander against him, smirking and ruffling his hair until Xander pushes him away.

“You and I will be having a long talk later.” Joyce tells him, looking him up and down. “I'm looking forward to it.” Peter smiles, “I've already been raked over the coals by Aggie and Terry when they found out Xan and I were related, I'm used to the heat.” Egon sighs and rolls his eyes as the others smirk. Joyce nods in satisfaction. “You'll do,” she says calmly. “Now Xander, is there any word from the lawyer about the Rosenberg estate?”

“Yeah, I just talked to my lawyer.” Xander says, dropping onto the couch with a sigh and having a lapful of purring cats instantly. “Colorado released the bodies, I'm going into Sunnydale tomorrow to arrange the funerals and have the lights and phone turned off. The lawyer will be cutting you a check for Willow's funeral.” Joyce begins to open her mouth and Xander sighs, knowing what the other woman is going to say. “Xander, you know I don't need to be reimbursed for that, it was the least I could do to help out.”

“I know, but it still has to be paid before the estate is completely settled. You and I are the only ones left to take care of everything.” Xander's eyes grow sad for a second, and the two cats start purring louder while Joyce and Peter put their hands on his shoulders.

“I want you to go through the house and appraise the contents.” Xander says, “The Rosenbergs were supposed to have a small collection of art and rare books. If you can't tell us what it's worth, you probably know who does.” Joyce nods slowly.

“Why wasn't the utilities turned off before now?” Aggie asks as Oz comes in with a couple of suitcases that he carries up to Joyce's room.

“Legally, Willow's parents were still alive, and the utilities were in her parents names. They were paid out of the bank accounts.” Xander shrugs. “The lawyer will explain everything when we see him. He says he's hired a bonded company to clean the house and clean it out for us so we can put it on the market.”

“When we see him?” Joyce asks, raising an eyebrow as she stands up, heading up to her room as Oz comes back in with the bags of groceries, pausing in his trip to the hotel kitchen to hand Joyce back the car keys. “I parked it along the side of the building.” He tells her, picking up the bags again.

“You and I are the only heirs left. Mr and Mrs Rosenberg left everything to each other, then Willow in their will. Her will left everything to her parents, then me and Buffy if they died first.”

“And Buffy's will left everything to me, then you and Willow.” Joyce says sighing. “I understand, I don't like it, but I understand.”

“Xander,” a female voice calls from the doorway and Cordelia runs across the lobby, throwing herself into his arms. The cats jump out of Xander's lap, ending up on the back of the couch giving her the mild version of the feline dirty look. “Why didn't you tell us you were coming home today, Giles and Wesley would have picked you up at the airport.”

“I called last night, but the answering machine was full.” Xander says, “You guys must have been busy while I was gone.” Cordy gives him a 'you better believe it buster' look, kisses him on the cheek, and heads for the desk where Xander had dumped the mail after unlocking the doors. Quickly sorting the mail, she turns her attention to the answering machine, making notes and deleting messages.

“Please tell me that's not more books to be put in the database.” Cordy asks Xander, putting her hands on her hips when she sees the boxes and bags of stuff in the lobby waiting to be unpacked.

“Some of it's books, some of it's photos I took in New York, some of it my stuff I got in new York, and some of it is presents.” Xander snickers.

“Presents?” Cordy says, “Well don't just sit there, let's open these puppies up. I'll go get the cart, and everything that goes in your room you can put on it to take upstairs later.” Peter snickers quietly as he starts sorting the bags he knows are Xanders from the bags of souvenirs.

“And who is this?” Cordy asks, finally seeing the kitten staring at her from the back of the couch.

“This is Samhein.” Xander reaches back and scratches the kitten behind the ears, earning a massive purr. “I suppose I'd better show you where I'm going to be setting up your litter box and food dishes while we're here.” Xander waits until Samhein settles quietly on his shoulder and heads upstairs, Oz grabbing the bag of supplies he pointed out.

“Yo Xan, key?” Cordy asks, looking at the board behind the old check in desk.

“Already grabbed it,” Xander calls over his shoulder, patting his pocket to make sure. Samhein jumps off Xander's shoulder, curling up in the middle of the bed for a nap while Xander puts the litter box in the bathroom, fills the food and water dishes and follows Oz back out the door.

“Books,” Cordy announces, opening a box. “Your private collection or the library?”

“My private collection.” Xander says, looking at the book she's holding up. “I need to ask Giles or Wesley later if they should be added to the database or not.”

“Library?” Egon asks. Cordy snickers as Xander pushes himself to his feet, leaning on the cane. “This way, we put it in the old Ballroom since we'll never use it for anything else.” He says. Egon blinks as Xander opens the door, showing rows and rows of books on free standing shelves. “How many books did you get scanned while I was gone?” he asks, looking at Cordy.

“We finished the back wall and we're going to be starting on the first row of bookcases next.” she says. “We got delayed a little when Doyle had a couple of visions and Derek offered to get us a second scanner so we could scan more books. He wants Oz to come to San Francisco when we're done here to set up a database for them. Something about a bunch of old journals they want copied before they fall to pieces. Wes, Giles, and Ethan are there now, they're supposed to be back later tonight.”

“Fascinating.” Egon breaths, walking through the rows of bookcases. “How long does it take to scan a book into the computer?”

“About twenty minutes or so, the time consuming part is turning the pages.” Cordy rolls her eyes. “We get four or five books scanned into individual files, then Oz has the program sort the pages into subfiles. Each chapter is a file, the index is another file, and the contents are entered into a master index. There's two servers right now, one here and one going to England when the guys go back so Xan and the others can start scanning Giles books. If you guys want in, you'll have a server of your own in New York.” Egon nods, while Peter moans at the thought of scanning all Egon's books. Ray and Winston snicker.

Egon is finally pulled out of the library and Cordy shuts the doors behind everybody, leading the way back to the lobby where they can smell something cooking. Xander walks over to the kitchen, finding Joyce, Aggie, and Terry talking quietly at the kitchen table, mugs in their hands.

“You know, I don't know whether I should be glad that Aggie and Terry are getting on okay with Mrs. Summers, or scared.” Xander says when he comes back. Oz snickers. “Be afraid, be very afraid.” he says solemnly.

Ten minutes later, all three women look up when Cordelia squeals loudly from the lobby. Joyce smiles behind her coffee cup. “Looks like she must have opened one of the bags of souvenirs.” she says while the other two women snicker softly.

“Okay, so Cordy and Xander used to date when they were in high school.” Aggie says. Joyce nods. “They broke up sometime before graduation?” Joyce nods again. “Yet they seem to be getting along very well now.”

“Cordy said that the year apart let them both grow up a little, and they're better friends then they are boyfriend/girlfriend.” Joyce says. “Seeing them together now I tend to agree.”

Meanwhile, in the Lobby Oz has unearthed the packets of photos Xander developed at the firehouse, snickering as he starts thumbing through them. A picture of Xander standing in front of the Statue of Liberty, holding his cane like the statue's flame. Xander at the Empire State Building, postcards from where he'd visited, ticket stubs from Broadway shows the others had dragged him to when he'd been freaking over the board meetings.

“Xan, what's this?” he asks, finding another set of photographs that look to have been taken in an old ghost town.

“Oh, those are the photos I e-mailed you guys a couple weeks ago. Did Wesley and Giles freak when they saw them?”

“Did they ever.” Cordelia snorts. “It was just like back at High School and we'd just found out about another big, bad. I didn't get your message until the next day and Giles and Wesley spent the whole day looking stuff up about psychic phenomena being captured on film.” She rolls her eyes as she remembers the two former watchers hunting up archaic notations in books while the others watched on in amusement. “You should have seen Giles standing at the computer with a magnifying glass trying to make out features before Oz printed the pictures out for them. They wanted to know if it you had the negatives and could make larger prints from them.”

“Yeah, Egon showed me how to do it. I know Egon wants to take pictures in Sunnydale to see if the hellmouth energy shows up when he develops them.”

“Reminds me,” Oz said, snapping his figures. “Talked to an old buddy of mine who used to work at one of those 1 hour photo labs. He said that sometimes photos taken in Sunnydale came out weird. Weird auras on some people, a film on some photos, strange colors. . . ” Egon looks over in interest and smiles. “Thank you Oz, it will be interesting to see what happens when I start developing the pictures. I'll need some help if you're interested.” The others look on in interest.

“How many of you besides Xander have access to cameras?” Oz raises his hand, Cordy puts hers up halfway. “I could use Angel's, he got one for the office. It's digital though.”

“That would be perfect, I would be interested in seeing the difference between the two types of cameras. I believe that Xander said a vampire won't show up in a normal photo, but he will in a digital camera?”

Cordy and Oz nod. “Hmm, fascinating. I wonder what phenomenon causes that, I would be interested in taking a picture with both a digital camera and normal film and developing it myself. Also, would any of you be interested in getting one of those disposable cameras and taking pictures with that? I would be interested in seeing what the picture quality difference is between a one time use camera and the others.”

“Yeah, I can run get some disposable cameras and do my imitation of a Japanese tourist.” Cordy snickers as the door across the room opens; Giles, Wesley, Ethan, Nick, and Derek walking into the room. “Xander.” Giles says, seeing the younger man sitting on the couch, immediately walking across the room and pulling his 'son' into his arms for a hug. “Oh, it's good to have you back. The hotel has been quiet without you and Cordelia bickering. How was your trip to New York?”

“Long, interesting, the board meetings dragged on forever I swear, but I spent a lot of time sightseeing with the guys. But, like the old saying goes, there's no place like home, even if it's only home away from home.”

“Xander, do you have the photos from Colorado?” Wesley asks.

“And I was wondering how long it was going to take before that question was asked.” Cordy snickers, finding the envelope of pictures and handing it over to Wesley. Giles takes off his glasses and cleans them, looking over the younger man's shoulder as they look at the pictures.

“Xander, I know that you were saying that Egon was teaching you how to develop photos. Would it be possible to have this one enlarged?” Wesley hands over one picture and Xander and Peter immediately start snickering when they realize which one it is. “Am I missing something?”

“If the photo in question is the one I think it is,” Egon says, shooting amused looks at his lover and Xander, “We were looking at it back in New York. I was going to blow the photo up further to make out further details, but Xander was able to make out what had been photographed.”

Wesley and Giles turn to look at Xander, who finally stops snickering. “It's a picture of Buck sneaking up on JD at the jail.” he says calmly, jangling his bracelet just loud enough to let the two former watchers know how he really figured it out. They smile and turn their attention back to the pictures.

“Time to eat.” Joyce announces from the doorway. “There's plenty for everybody, Cordy said you'd be arriving in a couple of hours. Somebody go set the tables, and we'll be bring the food out. Terry, Aggie, Ethan and Wesley are here.”

Everybody's eaten, the dishes are washed and put away, and everything Xander brought back from New York has been put away where it belongs. Egon has gone up to the lab he set up to go over the readings on the PKE meter he'd turned on when they arrived, comparing them to the readings Xander had taken last month when they arrived back from Colorado. The others are gathered in the lobby, checking e-mail on the computers, taking turns scanning books into the computer, or talking quietly.

“Harris,” a voice says from the stairs. Everybody turns to look that direction, finding Angel and Spike standing in the shadows. “Joyce?”

“I'm borrowing a room for a few days while the city works on the water mains outside my building.” she says. “We'll supposed to be without water for the rest of the week, maybe longer.” Angel nods, looking at the others. “Hey Deadboy, I'd like you to meet my brother Peter and the other Ghostbusters, Aggie, and Therese.” Angel nods to everybody as they stay in the shadows, waiting for the last rays of the setting sun to vanish before coming down the stairs.

Spike snickers as he sees Peter and Angel visually sizing each other up. “I've done some research on you, Angelus.” Peter says. “Angel, Angelus is somebody else, someone you don't want to meet.” Angel says softly. “Hurt Xander in any way and you don't want to know what I will do to you, understand me?”

“Agreed, and if you ever hurt Xander yourself, you'll find out why Angelus was called the Scourge of Europe. Your blood will be flowing. . .”

“Blood had better not be flowing Mister.” Cordy snaps. “You know how damn hard it is to get blood out of the furniture.” Spike snickers behind his hand.

The next morning finds everybody piling into cars for the trip to Sunnydale, pulling up outside the Rosenberg house a couple of hours later, finding the lawyer waiting for them. “Hello Mr. Harris,” Alex James says as his client piles out of a. . . hearse? The lawyer rubs his eyes, but the white vehicle is still there. “We'll be meeting back up with them in a few hours,” Xander says, waving goodbye as Ecto-1 pulls away, Oz piling out of Mrs. Summers car to direct them to the old High School. “This is Mrs. Summers.”

“Ahh, I'm glad to meet you Mrs. Summers.” He says, shaking her hand and reaching into his briefcase for the keys to the house and an envelope he hands her. “This is the check from the estate reimbursing you for Ms. Rosenberg's funeral expenses.” he says. “If you'll just sign here that you received it, we can go inside and check out the property.”

Joyce takes the pen from him, and reading the form, signs where he had pointed. She hands it back and he puts it back in the briefcase before unlocking the door. Joyce walks in and starts coughing from the dust, walking over and opening windows.

“Yes, I'm afraid it does need some cleaning.” Mr. James says, looking around the house as Joyce walks through the living room, “According to their wills, Mr and Mrs Rosenberg also had some property left to them by Mrs Rosenberg's parents when they died. Miss Rosenberg was left some money in a trust to be given to her when she was 21.”

“What sort of property, Mr. James?”

Alex looks through the Rosenberg parents wills, finding the page listing out of state property. “A vacation house left to them by Mrs Rosenberg's parents? It's located outside of Las Vegas.”

“Yeah, I remember Will and her parents used to go visit her grandparents who moved to Vegas when they retired.” Xander says. “When they died, Mrs Rosenberg had her parents bodies brought back here for burial.”

“Yes, the house is being rented right now to bring in extra money.” Mr. James says. “The company taking care of it right now will probably want you to go out and see the property, see if you want to keep the property, and have you sign some paperwork. According to the last tax appraisal, the house is valued at $800,000 for an older home that needs some modernization.”

Joyce's eyes grow huge while Xander nods. “Yeah, I'd heard that housing prices were going through the roof out there.” Joyce looks at him and he grins. “I was watching a marathon of those shows where they buy old houses, renovate them, then either sell them or rent them out to make a profit while I was packing for the trip back to LA. Some of those homes were in pretty bad shape.”

“Thinking about doing something like that, Xander?” Joyce asks.

“Your house is still up for sale, and now the Rosenberg house will be too. Rather than just let it sit here, I'd like to see it at least rented out if possible.” Xander says. “Luckily for me, Derek and his people are buying my old house, otherwise it would be three houses sitting empty we'd be paying property taxes on. Renting would at least get some extra money coming in and the property taxes taken care of..”

“I believe that renting the house out might be the best solution short term.” Alex says, blinking as he realizes once again that his young client has a very good head for business. “I have a friend in the Sunnydale realtor community, she's helping us try to find a larger place, who could rent this house and Mrs. Summers if she wanted to, just as soon as it was put on the market. Right now, the housing price is just too high for a lot of people to afford a house. Plus we have college students coming in and looking for housing for the school year.”

“Can you take care of it Xander? I can't stand being in that house anymore, I keep turning around looking for Buffy, but I don't want it sitting empty either.” Joyce says.

“Do you want me to call my friend and have him look over the houses when he has the time?” Joyce and Xander look at each other and nod. Alex pulls out his cell phone and makes the call, bringing his friend to the house twenty minutes later to find the others going over the house making notes over what might need to be done before it's put on the market.

“Joyce, it's good to see you again.” she says upon seeing the other woman. “I had tried calling you yesterday, wondering if you'd be interested in renting out your house instead of selling it, but I didn't get an answer.”

“Well, it looks like you had the right idea, Xander.” she says. “I never thought I'd be a landlord, but if it means not having the house sitting empty. . .”

“Your house in in pretty good shape.” Barbara says, sitting her briefcase on the dining room table where they're all sitting and opening it, pulling out the Summers file and checking it quickly over. “Carpeting was only three years old, plumbing was in good shape, and new paint inside and out. I'd hadn't been showing this house as a rental, but I think I know the perfect family for it.” she snickers, handing over the file to Alex James. “Look that over and see if you and your wife would be interested.”

Alex picks up the file, looking through it and smiling, pulling out his cell phone and calling home. “Honey, you remember that house we keep talking about? Yeah, that one. I have the owner here, and she might be interested in renting it to us. When can you go have a look at it? Today?” he looks at the others who nod. “I'll have to go back to the office to get the keys, but I can meet you there.” she says. “Tell her it will be about an hour.” Alex nods, repeats what Barbara had said, and hangs up. “Now, let me look over this house, I'll make some notes, write everything up when I get back to the hotel, and we can figure out a rental arrangement for both houses.”

An hour later, Alex and the realtor pull out from in front of the Rosenberg house, Barbara having called her office and having the keys to the Summers house delivered by the receptionist. Joyce and Xander look at each other as they get in the car, heading for the funeral home, filling out the paperwork to have the Rosenbergs buried as quickly as possible. Two hours later, they emerge from the funeral home, finding the sun beginning to go down and the the others waiting for them in Ecto-1. Joyce heads for the freeway, pulling into the Hyperion's parking lot an hour later.

“You guys get a lot of readings?” Xander asks as Egon immediately heads for the lab, only to find himself drug out by his elbow by Aggie. “Eat first, then you can look over your recordings. They aren't going anywhere.” she says calmly. “Xander, you got a call from your lawyer. He's arranged for the Rosenberg house to be cleaned and the furnishings moved so Barbara can have it ready for rental? He's faxed you some papers.”

Xander smiles as he walks over to the fax machine, quickly reading over the file Barbara had created for the Rosenberg house, with attached appraisals listing the house at 750,000 dollars. A note on the cover sheet from Barbara says she can have the house rented for a thousand a month easy, more if she allows three or four college students to move in together.

“Mr. James, it's Xander Harris.” he says, grabbing the phone and dropping in Cordy's desk chair. “I remember Willow talking about her parents had a couple of built-in safes. Have you found those yet?” He listens to the voice on the other end, giving Joyce a smile. “Yes, I know where Mrs. Summers is, the city's working on the water mains outside her condo so she's staying here at the hotel with us until she has water again.” Xander gives Joyce a thumbs up. “They loved the house, you just might have it rented by the end of the month if Barbara can come up with a rental agreement soon enough.” He listens and nods again, even though the man on the other end of the line can't see him.

“I know you have to work tomorrow, but I can head back to Sunnydale with the guys to help them find the safes. They were mentioned in the will, but their locations weren't mentioned.” Xander says after he hangs up. He looks over at Spike. “Can you get hold of that moving company again and have them meet me at the Rosenberg house to clean out the house? I'll have to rent another storage unit until we decide what to do with the belongings.”

“I'll have them meet you there tomorrow with a truck, whelp.” Spike says, picking up the phone. “Any ideas what you want to do with it?”

“If their clothes are any good, and after two years they probably aren't,” Xander says, “I thought I'd have them cleaned and donate them to one of the charities that gives low income people clothes for job interviews.”

“That sounds like something they'd like, Xander.” Joyce says as everybody sits down at the tables and begins eating. “What about the law books and medical texts?”

“I thought I'd see if there were any students who might like them, or donate them to a school, or add them to the library here if nobody can use them. Did you have fun roaming through the old house?” He asks Derek, Nick, and Aggie.

“Surprisingly yes,” Aggie says. “If I didn't know that Sunnydale was the hellmouth, Terry and I might have thought about moving there after we retired. Of course, the fact that a small town that size had a dozen cemeteries might have made us wonder. Otherwise, close enough to LA to commute if necessary, with all the comforts of living in a small town. Two colleges and a brand new high school, ideal for a family.”

“Yeah, until you realize the town has a 30 percent homicide and missing person rate, the cops are incompetent or corrupt, and the new school is because the old one blew up during graduation.” Cordy shrugs. “But you don't think about that in Sunnydale, people don't think about the weird stuff or find excuses. Gangs on pcp for vampire attacks, weather balloons for things in the sky, you name it Sunnydale had an explanation for it.”

“Ghosts?” Peter asks with an impish grin.

“Sunnydale seems to be a pretty low ghost location.” Cordy shrugs. “I think the one we saw at school was the only one we came across right?” The others nod. “Pair of teenagers who killed each other. The ghosts would take over a pair of students and they'd end up killing each other. Willow and the others tried to get them to pass on when they possessed Buffy and Angel. Now when the Mayor turned into a snake demon, it was hallucinations caused by the gas leak that eventually blew up the school.” Cordy shrugs. “Truth.” she says at the others astonished looks. “Sunnydale had a lot of practice at coming up with explanations for things that couldn't be ignored.”

“Look at when you dropped me off earlier.” Xander says, “Any other place you'd have been mobbed immediately, but here. . . You weren't even recognized, were you?”
“No we weren't,” Egon says, pausing with his fork in mid-air and focusing on what had happened earlier in the day. “We were briefly looked at by a passing patrol car when we first set up by the old school, but Cordelia was recognized and they waved and went on by.”

“Like I said, selective blindness.” Xander shrugs and stands up, his empty plate and silverware in one hand as he walks over to the kitchen, starting to load the dishwasher. “Egon, do you need any help developing photos?”

“No, I believe Winston can handle it, but thank you Xander. Go sit down and go over what you need to do tomorrow when we go back to Sunnydale.”

Xander settles down on the couch, his lap immediately occupied by a purring kitten while Brat stretches across his back. “Comfortable, you two?” he says, scratching first one cat, then the other behind the ears as Joyce settles on the couch across from him, taking her copy of the Rosenberg wills to read.

“Was your lawyer able to get anything recent on the house in Las Vegas?” She asks, looking up finally. Xander sorts through the papers Alex had faxed him, handing some over. “The lawyer says that one of us has to go out to Las Vegas and sign some forms for the company handling the rental.” he says, rubbing his hands over his eyes as he pushes the paperwork onto the table. “Want me to handle it? I have to go there anyway next month for another board meeting. Once that's taken care of, I should be able to head back to England. Hopefully, all the estates should be settled by then.”

“Xander, I meant to ask, did you get a chance to look at that information from Columbia yet?” Peter asks, looking over from his spot on one of the couches, a book from the library in his hands.

“I haven't had a chance to do more than open the envelope and look at the catalog.” Xander says. “If I'd had the time, I would have liked to visited the campus when I was in New York.” He shrugs. “I looked at the class descriptions, but couldn't find a program that reached out and grabbed me.”

“Go undeclared the first couple of semesters.” Peter says, Aggie and Terry nodding. “That way you can get the basic classes out of the way and talk to your advisor about what you might like to do with the rest of your life. Maybe something in business, so you know what is going on with your trust, maybe archeology,anthropology, or history since you deal with old stuff, parapsychology is always good if I say so myself. Giles, Wesley, what type of classes would a watcher have taken in school?”

“It depends on whether they were going to be Watchers to an active Slayer, support personnel, or researchers.” Wesley says. “All watchers took language classes, the more archaic ones were taught by the Council. Of course martial art classes were a necessity, just in case one's potential Slayer became activated, history and archeology classes. Researchers usually took more specialized classes as well, depending on what they were working on.” he said. “Oz, have you thought about going to college for computers?” He asks, having seen the younger man looking at the college information Xander had brought home from his trip to the local campus.

“Yes,” Ethan says, looking at his son. “There's more than enough money in your trust for college, that's what it was intended for after all.”

“I looked at the catalog, but UCLA doesn't have a strong computer program for this campus.” he says. With a grin Xander tosses the Columbia catalog towards his friend. “Look at Columbia's, I think Willow would have been squealing over it.”

“Thanks.” he says, taking the catalog and looking it over. “Only problem is, would my trust cover the cost of an being an out of state student?” He asks his father.

“There's a way around that.” Terry smirks. “Tara is living with her Aunt, so she's not considered an out of state student. You could come live with us while you're in school. If Xander ever decides on where he wants to go, he can either live with us or at the Firehouse, he can live here at the hotel if he goes to UCLA. . .”

“Or he can stay with the boys in Denver if he chooses to attend school here.” the Hellmouth says calmly through Xander's mouth. “Speaking of school, the boys sent Xander a packet of information for schools around the area, you should be getting it any day. Oz would be welcome also if he wishes to attend school here.” Oz and Xander exchange amused looks as they look at the information they have. Oz looks up from the Columbia catalog and nods. “I think I'd like to see the school too.” he says calmly. Peter grins at the two boys. “Tell you what, if Egon can give me a free day before we go back to New York, I'll go with you boys on a tour of the local UCLA campus, maybe give Xander some ideas what he'll be interested in for classes. And if you guys don't go back to England too soon and we're not bogged down with busts, the two of you can come to New York and I'll take you around Columbia.”

“And if you are, Terry, Sarah, or I can take them.” Aggie says. Terry nods in agreement. “I know they have tours scheduled for prospective students, but they usually only show the good parts of campus life. We can ask Tara to come along and she can give us the real scoop on attending Columbia university.”

“Aren't we putting the cart before the horse?” Xander asks, looking at the others. “We have to be accepted first, and I've looked at the guidelines they want for students. I don't think there's a chance in hell of them accepting me, unless I did something like attended a community college for a couple of years, and then tried transferring in.”

“Xander, you're forgetting one thing, you've got the ghostbusters behind you.” Peter snickers. “Columbia will be falling all over themselves to accept you when they find out you're one of us, after all, we're their most famous alumni.”

“Uh-huh, weren't you thrown out of Columbia? Xander asks, looking at his brother as the older man starts laying it on thicker and thicker. The other three snort behind Peter's back, used to his theatrics.

“Ahh, that's all water under the bridge.” Peter starts waving an arm around the room. “A mere misunderstanding. They couldn't wait to ask us to come back and teach some classes after we saved New York.” Xander looks at Egon with a raised eyebrow, knowing he'd get the truth from the other man.

“While we did leave Columbia against our wishes, we have been welcomed back since then with teaching privileges.” Egon says calmly. “Winston is currently considering taking some classes in our spare time to get a degree.”

The next morning finds Xander in the back of Ecto-1 with his brother and Egon, Oz following them in his van with Wesley and Cordelia. The guys had wanted to take more readings in Sunnydale, while Oz, Wesley, and Cordelia played tourist for them, running around the town snapping pictures for the Ghostbusters to examine later. Egon had been thrilled to find that pictures taken on the old High School did show signs of Hellmouth activity.

“Thank you for coming back so soon Mr. Harris. The hidden safes were mentioned in the will, but nobody can figure out where they might be located.” The lawyer says as Xander looks around. The furniture is being loaded out into the waiting moving van, while an inventory is made of the contents so Barbara can get the house ready for showing. “Did Ms Rosenberg or her parents give you any idea where they might be located?”

“Sir, I found something.” A voice calls from the direction of Mr. Rosenberg's office.

“I think you may have just found one.” Xander says, following him towards the den where he finds one wall cleared of bookcases and a panel pulled up. “It came up when I started moving the bookcase.” the woman says.

“Yes, that's definitely a safe.” he says, looking into the opening. “I don't suppose they would have written the combination down anywhere.” he mumbles under his breath. “Check out Mrs. Rosenberg's office, see if the other safe is in there.” he orders. “I wish they would have put the safe's locations and combinations in their will.” he mutters.

“They probably figured that Willow would be taking care of all this and she would know what to do.” Xander says sadly. “Try their birthdates or wedding anniversary, that's usually what somebody does when they have something with a combination.” Mr. James looks over his shoulder at him. “Can't hurt, we'll have to have somebody come in and open them otherwise.”

“Sir, I found the other safe, it was in Mrs Rosenberg's office.” a voice calls down the hall.

“Here, you go look in there, I'll see if I can get this one open.” Xander says, pushing the lawyer gently towards the door. “Can one of you bring a chair over here for me to kneel on?”

A chair is brought over, and Xander looks at the the safe. “Okay, let's see, first Mr Rosenberg's birthday.” Nothing. “Mrs. Rosenberg's birthday.” Nope, still nothing. “Their anniversary?” Bingo.

“Did you get it open?” the lawyer asks, coming into the room. “Yeah, it looks like a bunch of papers and an old briefcase.” Xander says, getting down and moving the chair out of his way. “You'll going to have to go through the papers for the estate.” he says. “Were you able to open the other safe?”

“Yes, I had to look up their birthdates and anniversary in my papers. It turned out to be Mrs Rosenberg's birthdate. What was the combination for this safe?”

“Their anniversary.” Xander says. “How long before the house is completely empty.”

“It shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. Have your and Mrs. Summers decided yet who will go to Las Vegas to see about the other house?”

“I will, I've got that other board meeting out there, so neither of us will have to make a trip out there just for that.” he says. “Right now, I'm currently free until everything is settled and I head back to England. Unless the others get their way and I end up enrolling in school over here.”

Ecto-1 pulls up outside the door as Xander and the lawyer close the door behind themselves. The moving van had left an hour ago, leaving the cleaning crew to clean the carpets and wipe down the walls. Barbara had left with the last forms to sign so she could start showing the house as a rental, leaving a rental form with Xander to take back to Joyce to look over.

“Everything settled with the estate?” Peter asks, wrapping an arm around Xander's shoulder as he slides into the back seat between him and Egon.

“Yeah, anything that's left can either be handled over the phone or he can bring it to the Hyperion to go over.” he says. “Sorry, it's hitting me hard all of a sudden.” he says.

“No need to apologize, Xander.” Egon says, “You would have to be superhuman not to be affected by all that's happened in the last few months.”

When they get to the Hyperion, Peter immediately chivvies Xander out of the car, inside, and up to his room where Oz has already drawn a hot bath. He smiles sadly as he looks back, seeing Xander finally break down as silent tears run down his face.

“Is he going to be okay?” everybody asks when Peter finally comes downstairs from Xander's room.

“Yeah, I think the stress finally got to him. One thing I do know, he's not going back to Sunnydale, not alone. It's too much for him.”

“Agreed, If he needs to go back for anything, Wesley, Ethan, or I will be with him.” Giles says, taking his glasses off to polish. “I will be eternally grateful when this is all over.”

“Excuse me, is Mr. Harris here?” a voice calls from the doorway.

“Mr. James.” Joyce says as Xander's lawyer enters the room.

“Oh good, I was hoping I was in the right place. I just need your signatures on these last couple of forms, and the Rosenberg estate will be settled. I didn't have the forms until I got back to the office, and unfortunately the court wants them turned in by tomorrow.”

“Let me go get Xander.” Peter says, heading back up to his brother's room. He opens the door quietly in case Xander has fallen asleep after getting out of the tub but he finds his brother calmly sitting at the desk reading a book.

“Xan, you okay?” he asks carefully.

“Yeah, I think it was something from the Hellmouth that was making me break down.” he says, looking up at his brother. “Once I'd gotten calmed down and was able to work on my shields some more, I felt better.”

“Your lawyer is downstairs, he says he's got the last few forms for you to sign before the Rosenberg estate can be be settled. He didn't have the forms until he got to the office and the court is demanding they be filed tomorrow.”

“I'll be right down, let me put on a robe and slippers.” Xander gets up, pulling on the robe on the back of his chair, sliding his feet into slippers and following Peter downstairs where he finds the lawyer quietly talking with Joyce, who is going over the rental agreement and, taking a pen from Giles, signs it. He smiles, signs it, and following Cordy to the fax machine sends it to the realty company.

“Thank you Mrs. Summers, I know my wife will want to thank you too. She's been looking at that house ever since we moved to Sunnydale, dreaming of living there some day.”

“I'm glad that somebody who loves the house is going to live there, Mr. James. I couldn't stand to be there after my daughter died, I kept looking for her whenever I turned around and it hurt too much knowing she'd never come home.”

“Oh there you are Mr. Harris, I'm sorry to bother you and Mrs. Summers I just need these forms signed before the estate is officially settled, and the judge is demanding that they be filed by tomorrow, otherwise it won't happen until he comes back from vacation.”

“Is this the last of it?” Xander asks as he looks over the forms, signing where indicated, watching as Joyce reads the forms and signs below him.

“Yes, you've got their personal items, the only thing left is the house that will need to go in both your names, and the contents of their bank accounts. Having the house signed over will be about a week, you'll be getting a letter from the court with the new deed. The bank accounts were frozen when the bodies were positively identified, the banks will be closing their accounts and sending you checks in about a week. And can I say how sorry I am that everything is happening all at once.”

“What about the trust you said that Willow was supposed to get when she was 21?” Joyce asks.

“I'll have to talk to the lawyer handling the trust, see if it can be settled easily. We have Ms. Rosenberg's death certificate and will, the judge may just decide to leave the trust until she would have turned 21, then turn the trust over to the two of you.” He puts the last papers in his briefcase, stands up, shakes his clients hands and leaves the hotel.

“Honey, I got good news.” he says, calling his wife from the car before he pulls away from the hotel. “Mrs Summers signed the rental form, we can start moving in as soon as Barbara gets the forms and we give her the first month rental and security deposit.” He pulls the phone away from his ear when his wife starts screaming. “I thought you'd like that news, am I forgiven for having to run out on dinner?” he smiles as he shuts the phone down and starts the car, heading home where his wife is waiting.

“Okay, since you don't have to go back to Sunnydale tomorrow, and Egon wants to spend the day developing the photos we took today, why don't I take you guys to the local campus tomorrow and we can see what the school has to offer.” Peter says, wrapping his arms around Xander and Oz. “Cordy, do you want to come along? I know you said you were interested in maybe taking a couple of classes.”

“Go ahead,” Angel snorts as Cordy looks at him. “It's been quiet around here the last couple of days and I'm sure you can use a break from scanning books.”

“You got that right.” Cordy mumbles. “Oh for gods sake,” she snaps, seeing Oz look after Xander as he heads back to his room. “Will you two idiots kiss each other already. Xander, you're interested in Oz and Oz, you're interested in Xander. Quit making cow eyes at each other's backs and kiss already.” Oz and Xander turn and stare at her in shock as the others turn away to hide huge smiles or have sudden coughing fits.

Xander walks over to Oz, looking in his eyes. He smiles, cupping his hand on Oz's cheek and smiles as Oz does the same. They slowly kiss, ignoring Cordy as she grabs a camera and starts taking pictures of the pair.

The End

The End.

josette grover is the author of 205 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 10 members. Members who liked Congratulations Dad, It's a Teenager? also liked 248 other stories.
This story is part of the series, Hellmouth Universe. The previous story in the series is Seven Men Against the Darkness. The next story in the series is Xander at Columbia.

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